warn 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OP 
CALIFORNIA 

SAN  DIEGO 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

T,OS   ANGKT.KS 

THE    GERMAN    DRAMA 

OF    THE 

NINETEENTH    CENTURY 


BY 
Dn.  GEORG  WITKOWSKI 

Professor  in  the  University  of  Leipzig 


AUTHORIZED  TRANSLATION 
FROM  THE  SECOND  GERMAN  EDITION 

BY 

L.   E.   HORNING 

Professor  of  Teutonic  Philology, 
University  of  Toronto  (Victoria  College) 


NEW   YORK 

HENRY  HOLT  AND    COMPANY 

LONDON:    GEORGE  BELL  AND  SONS 

1909 


COPYRIGHT,  1909 

BY 
HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 


Published.  June,  1809. 


PREFACE  TO  SECOND  EDITION 

Apart  from  some  small  formal  changes,  this  edition 
differs  from  the  first  in  that,  in  deference  to  many  ex- 
pressed wishes,  Romantic  opera  is  treated  in  a  special 
chapter  and  that  the  new  works  of  the  dramatists  who 
had  become  known  before  1900  are  added  as  far  as  they 
come  into  consideration  from  the  earlier  view-point.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  time  has  not  yet  come  for  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  whole  development  after  the  year  1900. 

GEORG  WITKOWSKI. 
Leipzig,  July  4,  1906. 


PREFACE  TO  FIRST  GERMAN 
EDITION 

This  little  book  had  its  origin  in  University-extension 
lectures  given  in  Leipzig  and  Altenburg  and  is  first  of 
all  an  attempt  to  pave  the  way  for  an  understanding  of 
the  drama  of  the  present  day  from  an  historical  stand- 
point. Therefore  the  chief  weight  is  laid  upon  those 
historical  factors  which  settle  the  last  stages  of  develop- 
ment, and  the  three  factors  of  dramatic  production,  art- 
view,  actor's  art  and  public,  are  considered  side  by  side 
in  accordance  with  their  importance.  The  musical 
drama  and  the  lesser  varieties  had  also  to  be  sketched 
in  their  development  if  the  picture  was  to  correspond 
to  reality.  True,  the  outward  form  and  the  brief  con- 
tents forced  me  just  in  these  points  to  introduce  merely 
the  essential  changes  of  each  variety  from  one  period  to 
another  and  to  illustrate  them  by  some  characteristic 
productions.  In  other  respects  the  work  imposed  ren- 
dered it  necessary  to  limit  myself  to  the  historically 
important  persons  and  works.  But  those  names  at  least 
should  not  be  lacking  for  which  the  reader  will  look  first 
of  all  because  they  are  reckoned  with  those  which  are 
mentioned  most  often  in  histories  of  literature  or  of  the 
stage.  That  I  have  also  mentioned  some  dramas  which 
appeared  after  the  year  1900,  in  order  to  complete  the 
picture  of  the  dramatists  who  up  to  that  time  had  al- 
ready become  important,  will  not  be  felt  as  a  violence 
done  to  the  limit  given  in  the  title. 

Leipzig,  January  3,  1904. 


TRANSLATOR'S  PREFACE 

Professor  Witkowski's  little  book  appealed  to  me 
from  the  first  as  a  very  sane  and  suggestive  introduc- 
tion, and  when  my  good  fortune  took  me  to  Leipzig  in 
1906  we  soon  became  good  friends.  The  desire  to  see 
the  work  turned  into  English  was  mutual  and  the  pub- 
lishers readily  gave  their  consent. 

In  only  one  instance  have  I  made  any  departure  from 
the  text  of  the  second  German  edition.  In  this  case  I 
have  made  use  of  an  expression  from  Prof.  Witkowski's 
last  letter  to  me  with  the  result  that  the  passage  seems 
to  me  more  definite  and  the  meaning  clearer. 

The  dates  are  those  of  the  original  and  differ  in  a 
few  instances  from  those  of  other  works.  I  have  not  the 
means  of  settling  these  differences  finally. 

The  figures  in  the  repertoire  lists  might  have  been  ex- 
tended in  the  English  edition  to  cover  the  years  1905-06 
and  1906-07.  But  they  would  have  made  little  differ- 
ence in  the  conclusions  drawn.  They  would  have  shown : 
that  Faust  Part  II  is  increasingly  played,  as  one 
might  easily  conclude  from  the  fact  that  at  least  three 
new  stage-versions  of  Faust  have  appeared  within  the 
last  two  years;  that  Laube,  Gutzkow  and  Freytag  seem 
to  be  more  popular;  that  Halm  shows  signs  of  revival; 
that  Schneider's  little  work  suffered  a  temporary  eclipse 

vii 


viii  TRANSLATOR'S  PREFACE 

in  1904-05;  that  Benedix  dies  hard;  that  Hebbel  and 
Anzengruber  are  rapidly  gaining  in  favor  with  the  pub- 
lic. 

To  my  wife  I  am  under  a  heavy  debt  for  her  close 
criticisms,  her  helpful  and  suggestive  advice. 

L.  E.  HORNING. 

University  of  Toronto  (Victoria  College), 
April,  1909. 


CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

GERMAN    DRAMA    AT    THE    CLOSE    OF    THE    EIGHT- 
EENTH CENTURY: 
Middle-class  Drama;    Iff  land  and  Kotzebue;    Schiller    .       1 

GERMAN  DRAMA  FROM  1800  TO  1830 8 

ROMANTIC  DRAMA 8 

The    Schlegels,    Tieck,    Brentano,  C-hlenschlager,    Platen, 
Immermann. 

FATE  TRAGEDY 13 

Werner,  Milliner,  Grillparzer,  Heine. 

HEINRICH  VON  RLEIST 15 

IMITATORS  OF  SCHILLER 22 

KSrner,  Uhland. 

FRANZ  GBILLPARZEE 24 

FERDINAND  RAIMUND 34 

PLAT  AND  COMEDY  FROM  1800  TO  1830 36 

Kotzebue's  Followers;   Birch-Pfeiffer;   Dialect  Plays. 

CHRISTIAN  DIETRICH  GRABBE 38 

ROMANTIC   OPERA 41 

Gluck,    Mozart,     Spohr,    Lortzing;     Weber,    Marschner; 
Meyerbeer  and  Grand  Opera. 

GERMAN  DRAMA  FROM  1830  TO  1885 45 

YOUNG  GERMANY  AND   ITS  FOLLOWERS 45 

Wienbarg;    French    Influence;    Laube,   Gutzkow,   Brach- 
vogel,  Bauernfeld,  Freytag. 

MIDDLE-CLASS  COMEDY  AND  THE  FARCE 52 

Benedix,    Moser;    Folk-plays;    Miiller,    L'Arronge;    The 
Farce,  Kalisch;  Dialect-plays,  Niebergall. 
ix 


x  CONTENTS 

PAGE. 

IDEALIZING   DRAMA 56 

Halm,  Mosental,  Mosen,  Gottschall,  von  Weilen,  Redwitz, 
Geibel,  Heyse,  Jordan. 

SUMMABT 62 

FBIEDBICH  HEBBEL 63 

OTTO  LUDWIG 94 

THE  SEVENTIES 102 

Lindner,    Wilbrandt,    Fitger,    Voss;    Dumas;    Lindau; 
Plays  of  1875. 

LUDWIG    ANZENGBUBER 108 

THE   MEININGEB 120 

RICHARD   WAGNEB 122 

ERNST  VON  WILDENBRUCH 133 

GERMAN  DRAMA  FROM  1885  TO  1900 137 

THE  OLD  ART  AND  NATURALISM 137 

French    Influence,   Zola;    Isben,    140,   Bjornson,   Strind- 
berg;  Tolstoi. 

THE  "  FREE  THEATRES  " 148 

HERMANN    SUDERMANN 152 

PLAYWRIGHTS  OF  THE  PRESENT  DAY 161 

Wichert,     Fulda;     Philippi,     Otto    Ernst,     Blumenthal, 

Schonthan. 

LITERARY  TENDENCIES  IN  PRESENT  DAY  DRAMA  ....  168 
Nietzsche,   169;    Symbolism;   New  Romanticism. 

DRAMATIC  WRITERS  OF  TO-DAY 175 

Weigand,    Hirschfeld,    Halbe,    Hartleben ;     D'Annunzio, 
Dehmel,  Dreyer,  Bahr,  Schnitzler,  Wedekind;  Maet- 
erlink,  182;   Lothar,  Hoffmannsthal. 
GERHART  HAUPTMANN 187 

PRODUCT  OF  THE  CENTURY 203 

Living  Dramas,  206;    Progress,   Conditions,   Outlook. 

INDEX  .      .      .219 


THE     GERMAN     DRAMA 

OF  THE 

NINETEENTH    CENTURY 


GERMAN  DRAMA  AT  THE  CLOSE  OF 
THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

AT  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  middle- 
class  drama  on  the  German  stage  far  surpassed  all  other 
varieties  in  numbers  and  popularity.  Lessing  had  laid 
the  foundation  for  it  and  made  it  free  from  French  in- 
fluence. Miss  Sara  Sampson  (1755),  Minna  von  Barn- 
helm  (1767)  and  Emilia  Galotti  (1772)  were  the  earl- 
iest prototypes  of  a  realistic  art  which  took  its  sub- 
jects from  contemporaneous  life  and  substituted  deep 
feeling  in  unadorned  prose  for  the  unnatural  sentiment 
of  the  Alexandrine  tragedy.  In  his  Hamburgische 
Dramaturgic  (1768-69)  Lessing  showed  that  the  French 
were  wrong  in  asserting  the  conformity  of  their  rules 
with  the  laws  of  Aristotle,  and  pointed  to  Shakespeare 
as  the  greatest  tragic  poet  of  modern  times. 

Contempt  for  rules,  enthusiasm  for  Shakespeare  and 
a  striving  for  a  characteristic  national  art  led  to  the 
production,  in  the  "Storm  and  Stress"  period,  of  a  suc- 
cession of  works  which  lent  gifted  expression  to  the 
feelings  and  longings  of  the  German  youth.  At  the 
head  of  this  list  was  Goethe's  first  great  work,  Go'tz 
von  Berlichingen  (1773).  For  the  first  time  the  past  of 
their  own  people  lived  before  them  in  a  genuine  his- 
torical drama,  but  it  was  too  disconnected  in  form  and 
this  prevented  its  becoming  popular  on  the  stage.  The 
numerous  imitations,  none  of  which  approached  the 
Go'tz  in  poetic  merit,  succeeded  in  avoiding  this  fault 

1 


2  GERMAN  DRAMA 

and  the  clang  of  armor  resounded  on  the  German  stage 
far  down  into  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  contemporaries  of  Goethe's  youth,  Lenz,  Klinger 
and  Heinrich  Leopold  Wagner,  did  not  satisfy  the  de- 
mands of  the  stage  any  better  than  he  had  done.  Ac- 
cordingly a  permanent  influence  was  not  exercised  by 
their  dramas  which,  by  their  treatment  of  contempora- 
neous social  problems,  enlarged  the  previously  narrow 
horizon  of  the  middle-class  drama.  In  Schiller's  early 
dramas,  Die  Rduber  (1781)  and  Eabale  und  Liebe 
(1784),  these  new  motives  were,  for  the  first  time,  united 
by  the  unerring  judgment  of  a  great  and  born  dramat- 
ist with  what  was  suited  to  the  stage  and  with  a 
complete  mastery  of  realistic  style.  After  completing 
Don  Carlos  (1787)  he  turned  to  that  idealistic  style, 
characterized  by  the  external  form  of  the  verse,  which 
Lessing  had  already  made  use  of  in  his  dramatic  poem 
Nathan  der  Weise  (1779).  These  two  works  exerted 
at  first  just  as  little  influence  on  succeeding  works  as 
did  Shakespeare's  dramas,  which  the  great  actor,  Fried- 
rich  Ludwig  Schroder,  had  been  playing  in  Germany 
since  1776,  or  Goethe's  new  and  lofty  dramas,  Iphigenie 
auf  Tauris  (1787),  Egmont  (1788),  Torquato  Tasso 
(1790).  Like  the  fragment  Faust,  which  appeared  at 
the  same  time  as  Tasso,  they  remained  entirely  unno- 
ticed. 

The  operetta,  for  the  most  part  the  harmless  repre- 
sentation of  slightly  idealized  rural  situations,  inter- 
woven with  simple  melodious  songs,  had  taken  tri- 
umphant possession  of  the  German  stage  since  1766.  It 
reached  its  highest  development  in  the  operas  of  MOZART, 
Belmont  und  Constanze  (1782),  and  Die  Zauber- 
flo'te  (1791).  At  this  time  middle-class  drama  re- 


GERMAN  DRAMA  3 

ceived  new  life  from  the  quickly  passing  "Storm  and 
Stress"  influence.     The  subjects  treated  by  this  class  of 
writers  were  taken  hold  of  but  fashioned  according  to 
the  temper  of  timid  middle-class  ethics:  the  collisions 
which  led  to  the  catastrophe  in  the  former  found  a 
happy  solution  in  the  latter.     The  middle-class  saw  its 
own  joys  and  sorrows  mirrored  in  these  plays  and  the 
great  mass  of  spectators  were  delighted  and  moved  to 
tears  by  the  conscientious  treatment  of  the  conditions 
and  events  of  their  daily  life.     What  did  it  matter  if 
commonplace  reality  was  presented  without  any  claims 
to   artistic    excellence,    if   Teutomania,   moralizing,   ef- 
feminate sentimentality,   one-sided  glorification   of  the 
middle  classes  at  the  expense  of  all  others,  and  theatri- 
cal convention  robbed  the  portrait  of  truth  and  higher 
merit?    BAEON   OTTO   VON    GEMMINGEN   produced   the 
first  example  of  this  class  in  Der  deutsche  Hausvater 
(1780)  and  AUGUST  WILHELM  IFFLAND,  actor  and  man- 
ager in  Mannheim  and  Berlin,  cultivated  it  with  the 
greatest  success.     His  best  works,  Die  Jdger    (1781), 
Die  Hagestolzen  (1791),  Der  Spieler  (1796)  held  their 
place  long  after  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
Iffland's  plays  were  suited  exactly  to  the  taste  of  the 
middle-class  public.     He  excluded  all   great  historical 
events,  all  political  questions  and  all  references  to  public 
affairs.     The  home  alone  was  his  world  and  this  he  de- 
lineated with  the  care  of  a  miniature  painter.     In  all 
his  plays  he  shows  persecuted  virtue  finally  overcoming 
vice  and  from  need  and  poverty  attaining  to  prosperity. 
An  easy  comfortable  life  and  the  middle-class  "Repu- 
tation" are  with  him  the  most  important  matters;  for 
their  sake  ethical  blemishes  are  tolerated  wherever  they 
admit  of  being  glossed  over.     With  Iffland  guilt  is  not 


4  GERMAN  DRAMA 

an  offence  against  universal  order,  a  conflict  of  the 
passions  with  divine  and  human  laws,  but  merely  the 
crime  which  falls  within  the  province  of  the  police  and 
the  reformatory.  Iffland's  plays  offer  actors  many  ac- 
ceptable roles  and  their  after-effect  may  be  traced  right 
down  to  the  present. 

In  respect  to  duration  and  strength  of  influence  only 
one  writer  can  be  compared  to  Iffiand,  namely,  his  some- 
what younger  contemporary,  AUGUSTUS  KOTZEBUE. 
But  the  same  expedients  wThich  Iffiand  employed  for  an 
honorable  purpose  are  in  Kotzebue  degraded  to  the  serv- 
ice of  speculation  on  lower  impulses.  In  his  works  the 
frivolous  noble  is  contrasted  with  the  worthy  citizen, 
the  Germans  are  honorable,  the  foreigners  rascals  and 
deceivers.  He  does  not,  howrever,  use  these  contrasts 
from  an  honest  patriotic  conviction  but  merely  to  flatter 
his  hearers ;  they  are  with  him,  like  everything  else,  only 
means  to  the  sole  end  of  external  success.  Thus  his 
great  talent,  in  spite  of  the  enormous  production  of  over 
two  hundred  dramatic  works,  brought  no  lasting  good 
to  the  German  stage.  Owing  to  the  fact  that  he  every- 
where aimed  at  light  superficial  entertainment  he  be- 
came for  a  long  time  the  real  ruler  of  the  stage  and 
even  in  the  Weimar  theatre  when  conducted  by  Goethe 
no  author  was  played  so  often  as  Kotzebue.  He  tried 
his  hand  at  all  varieties  from  lofty  tragedy  to  vulgar 
farce,  with  the  greater  success  the  lower  his  view-point, 
and  the  more  he  aimed  with  coarse  but  sure  art  at  the 
momentary  effect  of  pealing  laughter  or  of  cheap  emo- 
tion. His  favorite  characters  are  those  which  deviate 
from  the  path  of  virtue:  fallen  women  and  girls  whose 
misfortune  is  deplored  and  represented  as  the  conse- 
quence of  excusable  human  weakness;  frivolous  sedu- 


GERMAN  DRAMA  5 

cers  transfigured  by  the  splendor  of  knightly  charm ;  im- 
mature, naively  lascivious  girls,  the  forerunners  of  the 
modern  demi-vierges,  and  aging  worldlings. 

Menschenhass  und  Reue  (1787)  brought  Kotzebue 
his  first  and  greatest  success.  It  was  for  a  long  time 
the  favorite  play  of  the  entire  German  public  and  was 
also  received  in  London,  Paris  and  Madrid  with  an  ap- 
plause such  as  only  Goethe's  Werther  met  with  among 
all  German  writings  in  foreign  lands.  A  long  succes- 
sion of  other  very  influential  works  followed,  among 
which  possibly  Die  Unglticklichen  (1798),  Die  beiden 
Klingsberg  (1801),  Die  deutschen  Kleinstddter  (1803) 
and  Pagenstreiche  (1804)  may  be  regarded  as  having 
relatively  the  greatest  merit,  because  in  them  Kotze- 
bue's  talent  for  the  comic  of  environment  and  his  un- 
erring command  of  all  the  devices  of  technique  is  best 
shown. 

All  those  who  took  German  art  seriously  rightly  saw 
in  him  its  most  dangerous  enemy.  When  Schiller,  after 
a  long  interruption,  turned  again  to  dramatic  poetry 
in  Wallenstein  (1800)  he  had  to  try  and  combat  the 
moral  weakness  of  the  time  which  manifested  itself  in 
its  favorite  authors.  He  wished  to  unite  proportion, 
harmony,  grandeur,  intrinsic  truth  and  beautiful  form; 
he  substituted  an  inspired  rhythmical,  elevated  language 
for  prose  and  for  the  ethical  code  of  the  period  of  en- 
lightenment, an  exalted  idealism  which  was  filled  with 
pride  in  its  independence,  won  by  mighty  will-power, 
of  all  the  accidental  conditions  of  existence.  Schiller 
now  strove  for  an  effect  similar  to  the  overpowering 
force  of  Greek  tragedy,  and  sought  to  unite  the  lofty 
dignity  of  the  ancients  with  the  technique  of  Shake- 
speare, the  demand  for  moral  freedom  with  the  fatalism 


6  GERMAN   DRAMA 

of  classical  authors.  Each  of  his  dramas  from  Wallen- 
stcitn  onwards  represents  an  attempt  to  combine  these 
opposing  conceptions  of  life  and  art:  none  is  entirely 
successful.  The  depths  of  the  gulf  which  he  wishes  to 
bridge  over  is  most  clearly  recognisable  in  Wallen- 
stein  and  in  Die  Braut  von  Messina  (1803)  but  even 
the  two  intermediate  works,  Maria  Stuart  (1801)  and 
Die  Jung f ran  von  Orleans  (1802),  as  well  as  his  last 
completed  drama,  Wilhelm  Tell  (1804),  and  the  pow- 
erful fragment  Demetrius  bear  witness  that  the  prob- 
lem is  not  capable  of  solution.  The  lofty  sentiment, 
the  tumultuous  rhetorical  movement,  the  accurate  cal- 
culation of  effect,  and  above  all  the  incomparable 
dramatic  instinct  of  the  poet,  do  not  easily  allow 
the  disinterested  spectator  to  become  conscious  of  the 
inherent  faults  in  these  great  works.  Schiller  himself 
clearly  recognized  them  and,  when  death  suddenly  car- 
ried him  off,  he  was  on  the  way  to  a  realism  which  de- 
rives the  fate  of  man  solely  from  his  will  and  desires. 
That  it  was  no  longer  permitted  him  to  give  form  to 
this  conception  in  new  works,  is  the  greatest  misfortune 
which  has  happened  to  German  drama.  As  it  was,  his 
last  works  had  to  rank  for  the  host  of  imitators  as  ab- 
solutely classical  models  and  the  conviction  took  root 
that  only  in  this  form  was  dramatic  poetry  of  lofty 
style  possible. 

This  error  was  strengthened  and  kept  alive  by  the 
fact  that  the  following  period  did  not  produce  a  Ger- 
man dramatist  who,  like  Schiller,  was  capable  of  com- 
bining the  highest  artistic  purposes  with  noble  conform- 
ity to  national  character  and  of  gaining  in  this  way  a  last- 
ing influence  over  the  great  masses.  His  greatest  con- 
temporary, Goethe,  wrote  the  stage  a  farewell  letter  when 


GERMAN  DRAMA  7 

he  gave  to  his  people  the  first  part  of  Faust,  which  for 
all  that  could  not  remain  a  stranger  to  the  stage  because 
its  wealth  of  original  poetic  power  was  too  great.  But 
when  working  at  the  second  part,  to  which  he  gave  form 
in  extreme  old  age,  Goethe  had  before  his  eyes  a  scene 
of  action  which  was  not  yet  in  existence.  With  un- 
ceasing effort  the  German  stage  is  grappling  with  this 
work  which  one  day  must  become  its  greatest  possession. 


GERMAN  DRAMA  FROM  1800-1830. 

ROMANTIC  DRAMA 

THE  predominant  literary  movement  of  the  first  three 
decades  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  not  favorable  to 
the  creation  of  drama.  The  Romanticists  did  not  give 
to  the  stage  a  single  work  of  lasting  importance.  The 
great  dramatic  writers  of  this  period,  Kleist  and  Grill- 
parzer,  went  each  his  own  way,  the  former  scarcely 
heeded,  the  latter,  after  the  great  triumphs  of  his  first 
works,  soon  frightened  away  from  the  theatre  by  animos- 
ity and  lack  of  appreciation.  The  field  of  lofty  tragedy 
belonged  to  the  imitators  of  Schiller ;  in  play  and  comedy 
Iffland  and  Kotzebue  remained  the  masters  and  models. 
Only  the  dialect  play  and  the  romantic  opera  developed 
new,  independent  growth. 

Goethe  and  Schiller  have  their  heroes  come  into  con- 
flict with  the  objective  world-order  and  go  under  be- 
cause they  will  not  renounce  their  claims,  which  are 
subjectively  justifiable  but  objectively  unjustifiable.  On 
the  other  hand  the  theory  of  the  Romanticists  is  un- 
limited subjectivity,  their  law  of  life  and  art  is  caprice 
which  acknowledges  no  power  above  itself.  From  this 
follow  definite  consequences  for  the  form  and  contents 
of  the  creations.  There  is  no  definite,  clearly  recognized 
goal,  no  strong  clear-cut  purpose  out  of  which  the  action 
necessarily  grows,  but  instead  we  have  moods,  depend- 
ence upon  outward  impressions,  sensations,  aimless  wan- 

8 


derings  in  life  and  in  the  unbounded  world  of  phantasy, 
delight  in  what  is  novel,  curious,  mysterious  or  mystical. 
There  is  a  lack  of  clear  modelling,  a  striving  after  pic- 
turesque and  musical  effects,  a  preference  for  lyric 
form,  and  especially  for  the  prose  romance,  the  loose 
technique  of  which  seems  to  give  the  freest  play  to  ca- 
price. 

In  this  art  there  is  no  place  for  drama.  The  dramatic 
works  of  the  Romanticists  contradict  either  their  own 
principles  or  the  nature  of  the  class.  We  are  indebted 
to  them  for  only  one  great  production,  which  has  been 
of  the  greatest  service  to  the  German  stage  and  the 
further  evolution  of  our  dramatic  writings,  viz:  the 
translation  of  the  works  of  Shakespeare.  True,  Wie- 
land  had  already  turned  most  of  them  into  German, 
with  gaps  here  and  there,  with  many  mistakes  and  with- 
out penetrating  into  the  spirit  of  the  author  and  of  his 
times.  It  was  only  when  AUGUST  WILLIAM  SCHLEGEL, 
in  1797-1801,  offered  sixteen  plays  in  a  masterly  version 
that  the  greatest  dramatist  of  all  time  was  really  won 
for  Germany.  Schlegel  himself  translated  afterwards 
but  one  additional  drama  (Richard  HI),  the  rest  were 
the  work  of  Count  Wolf  Baudissin  and  Ludwig  Tieck's 
daughter  Dorothea.  In  1825-1833  this  so-called  Schlegel- 
Tieck  Shakespeare  appeared  and  is,  in  spite  of  occasional 
faults,  the  greatest  monument  since  Luther 's  Bible  to  the 
skill  of  German  translators. 

For  a  time  Calderon's  plays  also  exercised  a  strong 
influence  upon  the  German  drama.  These  were  trans- 
lated by  Aug.  W.  Schlegel  under  the  title,  Spanisches 
Theater.  Through  them  the  trochaic  tetrameter  became 
popular  for  plays  of  romantic  character  and  this  form 
of  verse  obtained  long  after  the  early  enthusiasm  for  Cal- 


10  GERMAN  DRAMA 

deron  had  died  out.  In  his  lectures  on  Dramatic  Art  and 
Literature  (1808)  Schlegel  laid  the  foundation  of  an 
historical  interpretation  which  placed  modern  art  on  an 
equality  with  the  classical,  Shakespeare  and  Calderon 
being  the  central  figures.  This  widely  known  work  has 
become  very  important  as  a  basis  of  historical  judgment : 
the  main  lines  of  its  division  are  still  authoritative  to- 
day. And  yet  August  William  Schlegel  did  not  draw 
them  himself  but  took  them  over  from  his  more  original 
brother,  Friedrich.  For  these  reasons  the  Schlegel 
brothers  really  deserved  well  of  the  German  stage  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  as  independent  authors  they  each 
produced  but  one  failure,  the  dramas  Alarcos  (1802) 
and  Ion  (1803). 

The  single  writer  of  the  Elder  Romantic  school  who 
wrote  numerous  works  in  dramatic  form  was  LUDWIG 
TIECK,  but  he,  too,  was  no  dramatist.  Schiller's  judg- 
ment concerning  him  gives  the  explanation:  "His  is  a 
very  graceful,  fanciful,  gentle  nature,  he  merely  lacks 
strength  and  depth  and  always  will. "  In  Der  gestiefelte 
Kater  (1797)  the  fairy-story  serves  only  as  an  excuse  for 
ridiculing  his  opponents,  Iffland,  Kotzebue  and  the  age  of 
Enlightenment.  As  he  does  not  produce  a  drama,  but 
merely  gives  the  description  of  the  staging  of  a  drama, 
he  disregards  completely  a  compact  dramatic  form. 
The  same  thing  happens  in  another  way  in  the  Leben 
und  Tod  der  heiligen  Genoveva  (1799)  and  in  Kaiser 
Octavianus  (1804).  Both  are  large  pictures  glorifying 
the  Middle  Ages  and  made  up  of  lyric  and  epic  parts. 

Tieck  studied  the  stage  closely  from  his  youth  up 
and  as  editor,  translator  and  critic  produced  valuable 
works  such  as  his  Altenglisches  Theater  (1811), 
Deutsches  Theater  (1817)  Shakespeares  Vorschule 


ROMANTIC  DRAMA  11 

(1823-29)  and  Kritische  Schriften  (1848).  However 
little  he  followed  the  laws  of  dramatic  creation  in  his 
own  writings,  he  was  thoroughly  acquainted  with  them. 
Germany  has  had  few  students  of  the  drama  with  the 
same  sound  judgment. 

The  gifted  CLEMENS  BEENTANO  was  directly  inspired 
by  Tieck.  His  Gustav  Wasa  (1800)  imitates  to  excess 
Der  gestiefelte  Rater,  his  historical  romantic  drama, 
Die  Grundung  Prags  (1815),  is  just  as  lacking  in  form 
and  as  insipid  as  the  Genoveva.  He  appears  more  in- 
dependent in  the  clever  comedy,  Ponce  de  Leon  (1804), 
though  it,  too,  is  unsuited  to  acting,  and  in  the  sprightly 
vaudeville  Die  lustigen  Musikanten  (1803). 

The  other  dramas  in  Romantic  style  by  Wilhelm  von 
Schiitz,  Achim  von  Arnim,  Friedrich  de  la  Motte-Fou- 
que  and  Joseph  von  Eichendorff  are  equally  unimpor- 
tant for  the  stage. 

Better  success  attended  the  Danish  author,  ADAM 
GOTTLIEB  OEHLENSCHLAGER,  who  followed  the  German 
Romanticists  most  closely  and  spread  their  views  in  his 
own  country.  He  wrote  in  German  and  Danish.  In 
his  fairy-drama,  dedicated  to  Goethe,  Aladdin  oder  die 
Wunderlampe  (1808),  he  was  still  noticeably  influenced 
by  Tieck,  in  his  highly  successful  Correggio  (1816)  he 
wrote  the  tragedy,  often  retold  afterwards,  of  the  artist 
who  shipwrecks  because  a  contemptible  world  does  not 
understand  him. 

The  greatest  master  of  form  among  his  contemporar- 
ies, ERNST  AUGUST,  GRAF  VON  PLATEN-HALLERMUNDE, 
showed  himself  to  be  an  artist  in  clash  with  existing  real- 
ity. His  comedy,  Der  gldserne  Panto ff el  (1823),  util- 
izes the  fairy-stories  of  Aschenbrodel  and  Dornroschen, 
in  the  same  way  as  Tieck  had  before  used  Der  gestiefelte 


12  GERMAN  DRAMA 

Kater,  to  sketch,  by  a  mixture  of  forms  in  Romantic 
fashion,  a  picture  of  society  colored  by  ironic  contrasts. 
Then  he  turned  his  attention  to  comedy  in  the  style  of 
Aristophanes.  In  this  however,  he  did  not,  like  his 
classic  model,  treat  the  great  questions  of  the  time,  but 
only  ridiculed,  from  the  view-point  of  superior  intelli- 
gence and  a  high  art-ideal,  the  phenomena  of  intellectual 
life  which  did  not  appeal  to  him.  Thus  in  Schatz 
des  Rhampsinit  (1824)  he  scourged  the  Hegelian  philos- 
ophy, in  Die  verhdngnissvolle  Gabel  (1826)  the  Fate- 
tragedy,  in  Der  Romantische  Odipus  (1829)  "the  whole 
mad  company  of  poetasters,  which  improvises  feverish 
dreams  upon  the  dulcimer  and  profanes  our  noble  Ger- 
man language."  Especially  in  the  addresses  to  the  au- 
dience, where  the  author  interrupts  the  action  and  speaks 
to  the  public  himself,  he  pours  out  his  contempt  upon 
everything  which  seems  to  him  vulgar  or  contrary  to 
art.  The  lofty  pathos  of  tragedy  is  here  united  effec- 
tively with  low,  oftentimes  very  comical  pictures  and  ex- 
pressions. The  figures,  however,  are  not  clear,  but  are 
representatives  of  whole  schools  and  only  the  brilliant 
cleverness  of  form  could  delude  one  into  overlooking 
the  lack  of  true  poetry. 

Platen  was  as  powerless  to  win  success  on  the  stage 
as  his  opponent,  KARL  LEBRECHT  IMMERMANN,  who  in 
Gardenia  und  Celinde  (1826),  speculating  on  the  delight 
in  the  horrible,  gave  new  form  to  a  repulsive  subject  from 
Andreas  Gryphius  which  Achim  von  Arnim  had  already 
used.  The  Trauerspiel  in  Tirol  (1828)  aimed  at  pre- 
senting in  a  great  historical  picture,  the  fight  for  in- 
dependence of  the  mountain-folk  against  the  French,  but 
Immermann  did  not  know  how  to  portray  convincingly 
either  the  Alpine  world  or  the  simple  heart-life  of  its 


FATE  TRAGEDY  IS 

inhabitants.  And  even  with  the  aid  of  fictitious  charac- 
ters no  dramatic  action  resulted.  A  revision  by  the 
author  under  the  title  Andreas  Hofer  did  as  little  to  re- 
move these  faults  as  did  later  attempts  by  others  down 
to  the  most  recent  times.  Immermann  portrayed  the 
fate  of  the  mightiest  of  the  Hohenstaufens  in  his  tragedy 
Kaiser  Friedrich  II  (1828)  from  the  view-point  that 
the  victory  of  a  pure  and  mighty  Catholicism  over  the 
liberal  thinker,  even  the  most  powerful,  represents  the 
final  outcome.  He  does  not  aim,  like  his  contemporary 
Raupach,  at  recounting  the  historic  course  of  events ;  on 
the  contrary,  a  fictitious  family-tragedy  stands  in  the 
foreground.  The  same  applies  also  to  his  trilogy  Alexis 
(1832)  in  which  the  contrast  between  Peter  the  Great 
and  his  unfortunate  son  is  represented  as  a  similar  one 
in  Don  Carlos.  As  author  Immermann  produced  his 
best  work  in  the  thoughtful  dramatic  myth  Merlin 
(1832),  though  with  complete  disregard  of  what  was 
suitable  for  the  stage. 

FATE  TRAGEDY 

Among  the  Eomanticists  ZACHARIAS  WERNER  was  the 
only  one  who  understood  how  to  unite  the  tendencies 
of  the  school  with  a  form  suitable  for  acting.  His 
great  importance  in  the  history  of  the  drama  does  not 
depend  upon  the  effective  but  mystical  and  emotional 
play,  Martin  Luther  oder  die  Weihe  der  Kraft  (1806), 
or  upon  any  other  of  his  bulky  dramas,  but  upon  a  trag- 
edy in  one  act  entitled  Der  vierundzwanzigste  Februar. 
"Under  Goethe's  auspices"  it  was  written  in  1809  and 
was  the  first  of  the  Fate-tragedies  which  for  some  years 
dominated  the  stage.  The  contradiction  between  classi- 


14  GERMAN  DRAMA 

oal  fatalism  and  the  modern  world-philosophy,  which 
Schiller  had  not  been  able  to  overcome,  is  here  adjusted 
by  the  introduction  of  a  wilful,  malicious  chance  plotting 
the  destruction  of  men,  in  the  place  of  a  great  and 
powerful  fate.  In  superstition,  in  wanton  joy  in  the 
horrible  and  the  uncanny  lies  the  cause  of  the  vogue  of 
the  Fate-tragedy  which,  however,  quickly  passed.  Even 
in  the  individual  works  of  Tieck  this  trend  appeared. 
Its  origin  was  favored  by  Schiller's  Braut  von  Messina, 
with  this  difference,  that  Schiller  never  degrades  to 
low  designs  the  fate  which  obstinately  and  at  all  costs 
carries  through  its  predetermined  purposes ;  on  the  con- 
trary he  succeeds  in  getting  out  of  it  an  effect  deeply 
thrilling  and  exalted. 

Of  this  there  is  no  trace  in  the  best  of  the  real  Fate- 
tragedies,  Werner's  plays.  The  spectator  receives  only 
the  impression  of  horror.  At  the  same  time  Der  vier- 
undzwanzigste  Februar  is  the  work  of  a  poet,  while  his 
imitators  try  to  obtain  the  same  success  with  ineffective 
mechanical  construction.  The  calculating,  unsympa- 
thetic ADOLPH  MULLNER,  who  had  before  composed  com- 
edies in  Kotzebue's  style,  wrote  in  direct  dependence  on 
Werner,  Der  neunundzwanzigste  Februar  (1812),  also 
a  tragedy  in  one  act.  He  heaps  up  the  horrors ;  bigamy, 
incest,  childmurder,  blizzards  at  night,  solitude,  thirst 
for  blood  are  made  use  of  to  increase  the  terror  as 
much  as  possible,  and  as  an  effective  addition  an  effemi- 
nate sentimentality  is  introduced.  His  success  was  so 
great  that  Milliner  in  the  very  same  year  wrote  a  sec- 
ond play  of  four  acts  in  the  same  style,  Die  Schuld. 
The  same  ingredients  are  here  mingled  just  as  unpleas- 
antly as  before,  with  such  accurate  calculation  that  they 
deceived  not  only  the  mass  of  the  spectators  but  also 


HEINRICH  VON  KLEIST  15 

many  penetrating  critics.  By  many  Werner  and  Milli- 
ner were  at  the  time  considered  worthy  successors  of 
Schiller.  No  wonder  that  now  a  great  flood  of  worthless 
Fate-tragedies  swept  over  the  land,  each  and  all  por- 
traying the  operations  of  a  secret  inevitable  power  which 
by  preference  makes  use  of  certain  days  and  objects  for 
its  fateful  interference  in  human  destinies,  avenges  the 
iniquity  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children  and  finds  rest 
only  when  the  family,  the  source  of  the  crime,  is  exter- 
minated. How  strong  the  influence  of  the  Fate-drama 
was  at  that  time  is  clear  from  the  fact  that  even  GRILL- 
PARZER  bases  his  first  work,  Die  Ahnfrau,  upon  fatalistic 
ideas  and  that  HEINRICH  HEINE  follows  in  the  footsteps 
of  Werner  and  Milliner  in  the  only  two  tragedies  he 
wrote,  Ratcliffe  and  Almansor  (1823),  which,  in  other 
respects  as  well,  were  complete  failures. 

HEINRICH  VON  KLEIST 

The  great  writer  who,  after  the  death  of  Schiller, 
might  have  been  named  to  continue  the  evolution  of 
German  drama  to  modern  and  national  form  could  find 
no  hearing  in  the  age  of  Romanticism  and  of  Fate- 
drama.  Thanks  to  the  exertions  of  Ludwig  Tieck,  pub- 
lic attention  began  to  turn  to  him  in  the  second  decade 
of  the  nineteenth  century  without,  however,  his  being 
recognized  in  his  true  greatness  and  historical  impor- 
tance. Only  much  later  did  it  become  clear  that  HEIN- 
RICH VON  KLEIST,  while  he  was  aiming  to  unite  the  art 
of  ^Eschylus  and  Shakespeare,  was  on  the  way  to  a 
new  and  national  drama  in  harmony  with  the  spirit  of 
the  age. 

Bernd  Heinrich  Wilhelm  von  Kleist,  born  at  Frank- 


16  GERMAN  DRAMA 

fort  on  the  Oder,  Oct.  18,  1777,  became  an  author  late 
in  life.  At  the  age  of  fifteen,  as  a  member  of  an  old 
Prussian  family  of  soldiers,  he  joined  the  Guards  in 
Potsdam,  serving  reluctantly.  During  the  Rhine  cam- 
paign of  1792  he  felt  the  deep  gulf  between  the  duties 
of  a  man  and  those  of  a  soldier.  In  1799  he  gave  up 
his  military  position  but  again  and  again  sought  refuge 
under  the  wings  of  the  Prussian  eagle  when  life  pressed 
him  too  hard.  In  his  native  city  he  collected  with  an 
insatiable  thirst  literary,  historical  and  philosophical 
knowledge  and  thereby  probably  laid  the  foundation 
of  that  derangement  which  all  too  soon  was  to  lame  his 
power  of  will  and  purpose.  His  portrait  shows  a  beard- 
less boyish  face  with  melancholy  eyes,  lines  of  suffering 
about  the  mouth  and  a  splendid  forehead.  His  inter- 
course with  the  cultured  circles  of  Berlin,  to  which  city 
he  returned  in  1800,  awakened  in  him  the  idea  of  win- 
ning bread  and  fame  as  an  author.  He  soon  found  in 
Robert  Guiskard's  fate  a  subject  of  imposing  grandeur. 
In  fruitless  wrestling  with  this  task  he  dissipated  his 
life's  energies  during  the  following  years.  Restlessly 
he  wandered  away  from  his  native  place.  Paris  could 
not  give  him  peace  nor  was  his  hope  fulfilled  that  in 
Switzerland,  in  the  idyllic  quiet  of  country  life,  he 
would  recover  from  his  unrest.  A  few  months  only  of 
happy  life  were  granted  him  while  he  led  in  Berne  the 
modest  life  of  a  poet  in  company  with  the  sons  of  Wie- 
land  and  Solomon  Gessner  and  with  Heinrich  Zschokke. 
For  a  time  he  now  allowed  his  Robert  Guiskard  to  drop 
into  the  background,  and  his  first  work,  Die  Familie 
Schroffenstein,  took  form.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that 
Ludwig  Uhland,  who  looked  after  its  publication,  sub- 
jected it  to  a  thorough  revision,  even  in  this  form  it  still 


HEINRICH  VON  KLEIST  17 

bears  testimony  to  the  independent  originality  of  Kleist, 
scarcely  influenced  by  any  predecessors. 

Not  from  the  mighty  primal  impulses  of  mankind  but 
from  distrust,  that  black  poison  of  the  soul,  does  ruin 
proceed.  It  destroys  both  sexes;  the  blossoms  of  love, 
unfolding  amid  hate  and  murder  with  magical  fra- 
grance, fade  away  under  its  pestilential  breath.  With 
compelling  necessity  the  course  of  action  follows  from 
the  given  data  and  the  characters  are  seen  to  be  most 
sharply  and  realistically  conceived.  Most  remarkable 
is  the  difference  between  his  language  and  that  of  his 
predecessors.  In  place  of  the  figurative,  copious  and 
sentimental  diction  of  Schiller,  gilded  over  with  an 
even  brilliancy,  in  Kleist  exuberance  and  concise  brevity 
appear  in  turn.  His  pictures  do  not  disdain  the  re- 
pulsive and  common,  but  every  shade  of  thought  and 
feeling  is  brought  to  clearest  expression.  Acute,  in- 
deed subtle  explanations  are  introduced  while  the  action 
rushes  on.  Limpid  flow  is  lacking  in  the  verse,  often- 
times the  sentences  burst  forth  and  tumble  over  each 
other  like  rocks  down  the  mountain.  Men  forge  their 
own  fates,  there  is  no  interference  by  a  higher  power 
standing  apart  from  the  world  of  reality. 

In  the  second  work  of  these  months  at  Berne,  Kleist 
gave  to  German  literature  one  of  its  best  comedies,  Der 
zerbrochene  Krug.  The  same  pleasure  in  acute  argu- 
mentation, noticeable  in  Die  Familie  Schroffenstein,  is 
found  in  this  play.  The  effective  forms  of  legal  proceed- 
ings, which  writers  were  very  fond  of  using  at  the  be- 
ginnings of  German  comedy  and  especially  in  the 
carnival-plays,  are  here  taken  up  again  for  a  higher 
purpose.  For  no  longer  is  it  a  question  of  the  repro- 
duction of  an  amusing  scene;  here  a  human  figure  of 


18  GERMAN  DRAMA 

the  significance  of  a  type  appears  in  the  village  magis- 
trate, Adam,  who  with  low,  foxy  shrewdness  tries  to 
turn  the  suspicion  for  the  deed  he  himself  has  done 
upon  another,  and  thereby  becomes  involved  deeper  and 
deeper  in  ruin.  This  court-scene  is  a  really  brilliant  per- 
formance but  fitted  out  with  a  wealth  of  striking  fea- 
tures almost  too  great  for  the  stage.  It  serves,  however, 
the  purpose  of  giving  an  impression  of  the  most  com- 
plete material  reality.  In  this  regard  the  play  forms 
a  striking  contrast  to  the  unpractical  idealism  of  his 
predecessors  and  contemporaries. 

Lastly,  in  Switzerland,  too,  Robert  Guiskard  developed 
more  and  more  towards  completion.  But  we  only  pos- 
sess a  few  introductory  scenes  which  Kleist  restored 
with  difficulty  after  he  had  destroyed  the  great  play  in 
a  paroxysm  of  the  blackest  despair.  The  fragment  takes 
its  place  among  the  greatest  dramatic  creations  of  all 
time.  In  it  the  difference  between  the  ancient  and 
the  modern  view-point  is  overcome  by  putting  in  the 
place  of  fate  the  plague,  that  inexorable  power  which 
rules  in  the  world  of  reality  and  which  cuts  down  men 
without  any  consideration  for  their  plans  and  purposes. 
The  style  unites  the  dignified  power  of  ^Eschylus  with 
the  passionate  subjectivity  of  modern  writers.  The 
chief  characters  stand  out  at  the  very  first  glance  in 
plastic  beauty  and  are  at  the  same  time  endowed  with 
a  rich  soul-life  full  of  splendor  and  color.  The  func- 
tion of  the  Greek  chorus  is  represented  by  individuals 
taken  from  the  whole  body  who  give  expression  to  the 
feelings  of  all. 

After  he  had  come  through  a  severe  illness  in  Switzer- 
land, Kleist  was  justified  in  venturing  with  Robert 
Guiskard  to  try  to  gain  admission  into  the  circle  of 


HEINRICH  VON  KLEIST  19 

noble  spirits  who  had  come  together  in  Weiinar.  Wie- 
land  especially  gave  him  a  kindly  welcome,  Schiller  also 
made  him  advances  in  a  friendly  spirit  and  Goethe  tried 
to  constrain  him  to  co-operation  in  his  works,  though 
they  appealed  but  little  to  his  nature.  But  the  mor- 
bid ambition  of  Kleist  could  not  submit  to  looking  up  to 
the  great  man  of  Weimar.  "I  will  tear  the  wreath 
from  his  brow,"  he  cried,  and  was  consumed  with  pas- 
sionate, fruitless  incitement  of  his  own  powers;  "Hell 
gave  me  my  half-talent,  Heaven  gives  a  whole  or  none 
at  all. ' '  He  could  not  endure  the  serene  air  of  Weimar. 
Once  more  he  was  driven  to  restless  wandering  through 
the  world  and  the  end  was  that  destruction  of  his  great 
life-work,  which  meant  renunciation  of  all  his  plans. 
Modestly  he  re-entered  the  Civil  service  and  in  Konigs- 
berg  he  found  a  couple  of  years  of  quiet,  during  which 
first  of  all  he  made  his  thoughtful  recast  of  the 
Amphitryon  legend.  No  longer,  as  with  Plautus  and 
Moliere  who  had  treated  it  before  him,  is  the  subject 
ridicule  of  the  deceived  husband ;  it  is  rather  the  almost 
tragic  perplexity  of  feeling  on  the  part  of  the  con- 
stant and  faithful  wife  Alkmene.  When  the  god  avows 
to  her  that  he  had  come  to  her  in  the  form  of  her  hus- 
band, then  holy  tremors  pass  over  her  but  she  wishes 
this  night  blotted  out  of  her  memory.  There  is  some- 
thing allied  to  the  mysteries  of  the  Christian  religion 
in  this  new,  soulful  content  given  to  the  old  heathen 
legend. 

Penthesilea,  likewise  begun  in  Konigsberg,  also  lays 
bare  the  innermost  depths  of  a  woman's  heart.  Again 
a  new  content  is  given  to  a  Greek  legend,  which  to  our 
modern  feeling  is  scarcely  comprehensible.  By  endow- 
ing the  heroine  with  a  supreme  need  for  love  and  at 


20  GERMAN  DRAMA 

the  same  time  with  an  unconquerable  desire  to  gain  the 
mastery  over  her  lover,  the  poet  creates  an  extivmr 
type,  a  strange  mixture  of  attractive  and  repulsive 
features,  but  after  all  grand  and  symmetrical.  All  the 
charm  of  his  language,  melodious  and  yet  not  cloying, 
of  his  images  full  of  feeling  and  picturesque  effects, 
Kleist  poured  out  in  the  Penthesilea  as  in  no  other 
work;  and  yet  it  is  just  the  very  one  which  is  most 
difficult  to  comprehend. 

He  only  finished  it  in  Dresden,  after  the  misfortunes 
of  the  Fatherland  had  startled  him  out  of  his  brief 
period  of  quiet  in  Konigsberg  and  an  unfortunate  inci- 
dent had  caused  him  to  be  thrust  into  prison  in  France. 
And  now  for  the  third  time  he  tried  again,  from  an- 
other point  of  view,  to  portray  the  essential  character 
of  the  loving  wife.  As  a  companion  picture  to  Pen- 
thesilea he  wrote  Kdthchen  v*n  Heilbronn,  whose  hero- 
ine voluntarily  endures  every  ill  treatment  and  every 
disgrace  which  the  loved  one  heaps  upon  her.  Clothed 
with  all  the  charm  of  the  fairy-story  the  gracious  figure 
had  an  effect  like  a  miraculous  picture.  But  in  con- 
tradistinction to  the  vague,  fantastic  manner  with  which 
the  Romanticists  of  his  day  treated  similar  subjects,  here 
everything  is  set  forth  clearly  and  definitely.  Kleist 
chose  the  popular  form  of  the  drama  of  chivalry  and 
by  a  revision  met  the  requirements  of  the  stage  better 
than  he  had  done  before.  For  this  reason  Kdthchen  at- 
tained a  popularity  beyond  any  of  his  other  works  and 
was  proof  even  against  the  wretched  stage-versions  in 
which  it  had  to  appear. 

A  burning  hatred  of  Napoleon  drove  the  author  out 
of  Dresden  when  Austria  rose  in  1809  to  fight  for  free- 
dom. At  that  time  he  wrote  Die  Hermannsschlacht  to 


HEINRICH  VON  KLEIST  21 

inspire  the  Germans  to  a  national  war  against  the  con- 
queror. But  embittered  passion  could  produce  no  work 
of  art  and  the  unsuitable  material,  which  had  always 
been  intractable  to  dramatists,  helped  to  bring  about 
the  failure  of  this  powerful  drama,  though  it  was  very 
impressive  in  individual  passages. 

When  Austria  was  vanquished,  Kleist  again  and  for 
the  last  time  sought  help  in  Berlin.  He  brought  with 
him  a  new  work,  Der  Prinz  von  Hamburg,  a  companion 
piece  to  Hermannsschlacht.  It  showed  where  the  poet 
saw  the  hope  for  the  salvation  of  his  native  country, 
namely,  in  the  Prussian  spirit  of  unconditional  obedi- 
ence and  in  a  readiness  to  sacrifice  everything  for  the 
state.  Kleist  does  not  make  his  prince  despise  death 
like  the  ordinary  heroes  of  tragedy;  on  the  contrary, 
he  trembles  so  violently  in  its  presence  that  everything 
else  in  comparison  with  mere  existence  seems  as  nothing. 
But  the  conviction  of  the  necessity  of  discipline  conquers 
even  this  fear  of  death  and  the  prince  is  ready  to  suffer 
the  punishment  he  has  deserved  for  his  transgression. 
Thus  the  power  of  the  sense  of  duty,  through  which 
Prussia  has  become  great,  is  upheld  in  all  its  strength. 
In  the  Prinz  von  Hamburg  Kleist  produced  his  best  and 
last  work.  All  the  brilliant  characteristics,  which  make 
his  figure  stand  out  prominently  from  the  great  crowd 
of  dramatists,  he  displayed  in  this  work  as  never  before 
and  combined  them  with  full  mastery  over  all  artistic 
devices.  His  power  as  a  poet  was  still  increasing  when 
despair  and  an  intolerable  disgust  of  life  drove  him, 
on  Nov.  21,  1811,  into  voluntary  death. 

In  his  lifetime  only  Der  zerbrochene  Krug  and 
Kdthchen  von  Heilbronn  were  put  upon  the  stage. 
Kleist 's  fame  blossomed  late  and  even  then  his  attempt 


22  GERMAN  DRAMA 

to  create  a  realistic  drama  met  with  but  little  real  ap- 
preciation. The  field  belonged  to  the  false  idealism  of 
the  descendants  of  classicism. 

THE  IMITATORS  OF  SCHILLER. 

With  the  works  of  his  last  period  Schiller  had  won 
his  greatest  triumphs,  because  he  combined  in  ideal 
excellence  suitable  stage-technique  with  great  thought- 
content,  unerring  judgment  with  inspiring  flights  of 
poetry.  It  did  not  seem  difficult  to  appropriate  this 
style  which  offered  so  many  advantages.  The  prepon- 
derance of  incident  over  characterization  anticipated 
the  delight  of  the  public  in  external  agencies,  in  stage 
effects.  The  action  is  under  the  guidance  of  a  higher 
power  outside  the  play.  This  exercises  an  inexorable 
influence  over  great  characters  who  think  themselves  free 
and  fight  against  it  with  all  their  might.  And  yet  the 
individual  case  appears  as  a  type  of  human  destiny.  In 
the  characterization  of  his  personages  he  preferred 
great  and  easily  comprehended  outlines  and  avoided 
everything  complicated,  inexplicable  and  disordered. 
His  language  is  full  of  grand  and  brilliant  metaphors 
which  sacrifice  pithiness  to  beauty  and  is  rich  in  inter- 
polations of  generalized  truths  and  aphorisms.  The 
subjects  are  taken  from  the  history  of  the  Middle  Ages 
or  of  modern  times  and  offer  plenty  of  occasion  for 
varied  and  figure-filled  canvases.  The  iambic  pentameter 
seemed  easy  to  master  and  gave  dignity  to  the  dialogue 
which,  by  help  of  the  rhyme  at  the  climaxes,  attained 
increased  melodious  effect. 

All  these  superficial  qualities  of  Schiller's  later 
dramas  have  been  copied  faithfully  for  nearly  a  century 


THE  IMITATORS  OF  SCHILLER  23 

by  his  imitators  and  they  have  supposed  that  thereby 
they  possessed  a  style  in  lofty  drama  which  would  hold 
good  for  all  time.  But  they  forgot  in  doing  this  that 
only  Schiller's  peculiar  personality  gave  these  forms 
their  validity  and  disguised  their  lack  of  unity  and 
modern  consciousness.  Schiller's  great  judgment  in 
matters  of  history  had  comprehended  in  every  case  the 
true  significance  of  the  scenes  he  portrayed,  his  great 
genius  had  given  form  in  brilliant  language  to  an  ideal, 
self-acquired  world  of  thought.  The  power  of  his  char- 
acterization had,  in  defiance  of  his  own  artificially  con- 
structed principles,  almost  everywhere  revealed  the  in- 
ner just  as  fully  as  the  outward  causes  of  the  destinies 
and  deeds  of  his  heroes.  The  breath  of  inspiration  ex- 
haled from  his  dramas  carried  all  before  it  and  corre- 
sponded to  that  ethical  idealism  which  soon  afterwards, 
disjoined  from  other  ideas,  became  a  mere  phrase  with 
later  writers.  It  was  a  fateful  error  when  it  was  gen- 
erally believed  that  one  could  not  improve  on  Schiller 
and  must  strive  for  his  effect  and  with  his  means. 

Even  in  young  THEODOR  KORNER  these  characteristics 
are  conspicuous  in  his  first  dramas,  Toni,  Zriny,  Hedwig, 
Rosamunde  (all  1812).  As  a  writer  of  comedies  he  fol- 
lows Kotzebue,  whom  he  also  resembles  in  his  rapid 
and  frivolous  methods  of  work.  He  possessed  a  decided 
sense  for  theatrical  effects  and  would  doubtless  have 
given  to  the  German  stage  a  number  of  successful,  even 
though  inherently  unimportant  works,  had  not  a  heroic 
death  for  the  Fatherland  fallen  to  his  lot. 

Without  the  stage-skill  of  Korner,  the  noble  LUDWIG 
UHLAND  could  not,  with  all  his  efforts,  win  any  success 
as  a  dramatist,  in  spite  of  his  higher  poetic  gifts.  The 
only  representatives  of  his  numerous  sketches  which 


24  GERMAN  DRAMA 

appeared  in  print,  Ernst,  Herzog  von  Schwaben  (1818) 
and  Ludwig,  der  Bayer  (1819)  brought  no  gain  to  the 
stage.  The  same  thing  happened  to  a  number  of  dilet- 
tanti who  expressed  noble  ideas  in  their  dramas  without 
the  necessary  mastery  of  technique,  such  as  FRIEDRICH 

VON  UCHTRITZ,  EDWARD  VON  SCHENK,  and  MlCHAEL  BEER. 

Directors  of  theatres  and  actors,  such  as  AUGUST  KLINGE- 
MANN  and  FRANZ  VON  HOLBEIN,  who  with  shrewd  calcu- 
lation understood  how  to  employ  Schiller's  style  gained 
a  great  public.  The  greatest  success  in  this  way  was 
won  by  ERNST  RAUPACH,  a  prosaic,  cool,  calculating, 
common  sense  writer,  who  for  a  time  dominated  the 
stage  with  his  worthless  tragedies  and  comedies. 

FRANZ  GRILLPARZER. 

The  one  great  dramatist  whom  Germany  possessed  at 
Schiller's  death,  Heinrich  von  Kleist,  died  unheeded 
by  his  contemporaries.  The  whole  energy  of  the  nation 
was  turned  to  the  one  thought  of  deliverance  from  the 
yoke  of  Napoleon  and,  when  after  a  great  and  heroic 
struggle  it  was  finally  accomplished,  when  this  mighty 
restless  spirit  was  banished  to  St.  Helena,  every  one 
hoped  for  a  period  of  freedom.  Never  was  a  hope 
more  shamefully  deceived.  What  the  sword  had  won, 
the  pen  destroyed.  The  princes  forgot  the  promises 
which  in  time  of  need  they  had  made  to  their  subjects. 
Matters  looked  worst  of  all  in  Austria.  For  centuries 
the  Hapsburgs  had  seen  in  Jesuitism,  the  means  of  hold- 
ing together  and  ruling  their  disunited  peoples.  In 
the  short  reign  of  Joseph  II  alone  was  a  more  liberal 
spirit  displayed.  "Good"  Emperor  Franz  returned  to 
the  old  paths,  the  Jesuits  again  received  charge  of 


FRANZ  GRILLPARZER  25 

public  instruction;  the  cloisters  and  other  institutions 
secularized  by  the  state  were  again  established  and  the 
police  supervision  of  Metternich  threatened  all  inde- 
pendent thought  with  the  severest  punishment. 

FRANZ  GRILLPARZER,  the  ablest  of  those  who  followed 
in  the  footsteps  of  Goethe  and  Schiller,  had  to  live 
and  write  in  this  Austria  of  Metternich 's.  Where  they 
had  stood  he  would  have  preferred  to  stand,  for  he 
thought  that  the  world  would  need  several  generations 
to  rise  to  the  height  of  their  idealism.  But,  to-day  we 
must  say  it  was  fortunate  for  him,  his  gentle  nature 
was  not  strong  enough  to  overcome  the  earthly,  and 
therefore  his  creations  could  not  disown  the  influence 
of  the  soil  and  of  the  time  in  which  they  had  their 
origin. 

He  first  saw  the  light  of  day  in  Vienna  on  Jan.  15, 
1791.  The  tenacious  uprightness  and  clear  judgment  of 
his  father,  the  passionate,  musical  and  nervous  nature 
of  his  mother  were  united  in  him.  This  mingling  of 
the  opposite  natures  of  the  parents  made  Grillparzer 
a  peculiar,  contradictory,  perverse  and  yet  weak-willed 
character.  Only  a  small  measure  of  freedom  and  favor- 
able circumstances  would  have  been  necessary  to  let 
him  find  the  way  to  the  cheerful  regions  of  peace  and 
good  fortune.  His  nature  and  his  talents  continually 
sought  peace  and  beauty;  and  yet  from  youth  up  he 
was  sinned  against  by  the  education  and  the  environ- 
ment in  which  he  grew  to  manhood.  When  he  had  fin- 
ished his  studies,  after  a  distressing  existence  as  a 
private  tutor,  he  received  a  position  in  the  Civil  service 
in  which  he  was  obliged  to  remain  until  1856.  The 
fame  which  he  won  as  a  writer  was  fatal  to  him  in  this 
position  and  hindered  his  advancement.  As  an  official 


26  GERMAN  DRAMA 

he  was  not  taken  at  his  full  value  and  was  considered 
a  suspicious  character  in  the  Austria  of  that  day,  as  was 
every  one  whose  independent  spirit  aimed  to  attain  to 
higher  things.  Therefore  he  was  obliged  in  the  days  of 
his  best  powers  to  carefully  repress  every  expression 
of  independence  and  was  never  sure  but  that  the  life  of 
his  intellectual  offspring  would  be  stifled  even  in  the 
cradle  by  a  stupid  censorship.  He  became  a  discon- 
tented, embittered  man.  Not  understood  by  the  easy- 
going, happy-spirited  Viennese,  he  lived  in  solitude 
beside  the  love  of  his  youth  to  whom  he  had  never  dared 
to  unite  himself  because  he  lacked  courage  to  believe 
in  good  fortune.  The  Revolution  of  1848  brought  the 
possibility  of  freedom  to  write  and  his  almost  forgotten 
works  were  revived  through  the  instrumentality  of 
Laube;  but  that  did  not  become  in  him  a  joyous  in- 
citement to  new  activity  because  his  desire  to  create  had 
died  in  him.  He  lived  on  until  Jan.  21,  1872,  but 
during  this  long  period  produced  scarcely  anything  new. 
Grillparzer  first  appeared  to  the  public  as  an  author 
when  twenty-five  years  of  age.  His  first  acted  drama, 
Die  Ahnfrau  (1816),  was  a  fate-tragedy  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  the  poet  denied  this.  It  did,  indeed,  stand 
high  above  the  seemingly  similar  plays  of  Milliner 
by  whom  it  was  most  influenced ;  not  with  cool  calcula- 
tion but  with  glowing  passion  did  the  poet  transform 
the  contents  of  a  penny-dreadful  into  a  genuine  and 
great  work  of  art.  With  him  the  hereditary  impulse 
to  evil,  which  may  lie  in  the  blood,  does  not  do  away 
with  moral  responsibility.  In  this  way  Die  Ahnfrau  is 
distinguished  from  the  rest  of  the  fate-tragedies  as  well 
as  from  the  heredity-plays  of  the  present.  Moreover, 
it  is  not  a  question  with  him,  as  with  his  predecessors, 


FRANZ  GRILLPARZER  27 

of  revealing  former  events;  on  the  contrary,  an  action 
developing  with  astonishing  rapidity  in  the  presence 
of  the  spectators  compels  the  attention  of  all.  And  thus 
Die  Ahnfrau,  which  quickly  made  Grillparzer 's  name 
famous  all  over  Germany,  has  also  justly  outlived  the 
vogue  of  the  fate-tragedies. 

His  second  tragedy,  Sappho  (1818),  forms  the  strong- 
est contrast  to  Die  Ahnfrau.  In  the  latter  he  borrowed 
the  material  from  the  field  of  the  robber-and-ghost- 
romances  and  the  passionate  pathos  from  Schiller's 
early  dramas;  in  the  former  Goethe's  Iphigenie  was 
his  model  and  he  endeavored  to  attain  to  classic  and 
refined  beauty.  His  characters  are  just  as  noble  as 
those  of  Goethe  but  their  movements  are  more  animated 
and  their  acts  proceed  rather  from  the  accidental  con- 
ditions of  a  peculiar  personality.  The  heroine,  Sappho, 
is  to  perish  because  of  the  variance  between  her  calling 
as  an  artist  and  the  longings  of  her  passionate  woman's 
nature.  And  yet  the  poet  did  not  succeed  in  giving 
this  conflict  convincing  form,  for  in  the  catastrophe 
she  is  in  reality  only  a  jealous  woman  in  love  and  ab- 
sorbed in  her  passion,  a  woman  who  loves  a  younger 
man.  Phaon,  deceiving  himself,  believes  he  loved  the 
admired  artist  but  recognizes  his  mistake  when  the 
lovely  Melitta  comes  into  his  ken.  In  this  couple  we 
see,  for  the  first  time  in  Grillparzer 's  works,  an  awaken- 
ing through  love  out  of  a  dreamy  existence  to  a  life 
full  of  action.  Though  Die  Ahnfrau,  because  of  its 
affinity  to  the  fate-tragedies  and  in  spite  of  its  success, 
did  meet  with  opposition  from  the  critics,  the  poet  was 
now  recognized  because  of  Sappho  as  the  greatest  among 
those  who  had  appeared  since  the  classic  writers. 

A  brilliant  future  seemed  to  be  opening  up  before  him 


28  GERMAN  DRAMA 

and  with  glad  heart  he  began  the  creation  of  a  third 
work,  Das  goldene  Vliess,  which  was  to  far  surpass 
the  two  preceding  in  range  and  importance.  The  ex- 
tended treatment  necessitated  three  parts,  although 
Grillparzer  himself  recognised  that  the  mutual  depend- 
ence of  one  part  on  the  others  would  give  to  the  whole 
something  of  an  epic  effect,  by  means  of  which  it  would 
probably  gain  in  individuality  but  lose  in  truth  and 
pithiness. 

When  the  first  part,  Der  Gastfreund,  and  the  first 
three  acts  of  the  second,  Die  Argonauten,  had  been  fin- 
ished in  the  brief  period  between  Sept.  29  and  Nov.  3, 
1818,  the  suicide  of  his  mother  interrupted  the  activities 
of  the  poet  for  a  long  time  and  only  in  1820  was  the 
work  completed  by  the  addition  of  the  last  part,  Die 
Medea.  In  spite  of  this,  the  long-drawn-out  composi- 
tion possesses  a  complete,  well-knit,  intrinsic  unity.  The 
fleece,  as  an  outward  sign  of  what  is  desirable  and 
eagerly  sought  after  but  unrighteously  gained,  ruins 
all  its  possessors,  not,  however,  as  the  result  of  a  curse 
attached  to  it,  but  as  Jason  says: 

"Nicht  gut,   nicht  schlimm   ist,  was   die   Gotter  geben, 
Und  der  Empfanger  erst  macht  das  Geschenk. 
So  wie  das  Brot,  das  uns  die  Erde  spendet, 
Den   Starken   starkt,   des   Kranken    Siechtum   mehrt, 
So  sind  der  Gotter  hohe  Gaben  alle, 
Dem  Guten  gut,  dem  Argen  zum  Verderben." 

Medea,  the  heroine  of  the  trilogy,  develops  from  a 
naive  child  of  nature,  in  whom  savagery  and  tenderness 
form  a  peculiarly  fascinating  mixture,  into  a  deserted 
woman  thirsting  for  revenge.  She  murders  her  own 
children  in  order  to  take  vengeance  on  Jason,  an  out- 
wardly pleasant  but  unimpassioned  egoist.  The  con- 


FRANZ  GRILLPARZER  29 

trast  between  barbaric,  unbridled  impulse  and  Hellenic 
culture  forms  the  background  and  is  another  source  of 
the  tragic  fate  of  the  heroine. 

Once  more  only  did  Grillparzer  go  back  to  classic 
antiquity,  in  the  tragedy,  Des  Meeres  und  der  Liebe 
Wellen  (1831),  when  he  made  the  same  subject  which 
Schiller  had  treated  in  his  ballad,  Hero  und  Leander, 
the  basis  of  a  drama.  While  Schiller  makes  the  bold 
youth  who  ventures  everything  for  the  possession  of  his 
loved  one  the  hero,  Grillparzer  glorifies  in  Hero  love 
itself.  This  constitutes  the  conflict  and  the  tragic  sub- 
ject. In  Hero  all  is  bright  and  unconscious.  Not  a  mo- 
ment does  she  reflect  on  the  righteousness  of  her  action ; 
the  most  gracious  charm  encircles  her;  her  nature  is 
thoroughly  transparent  and  sensible,  but  in  her  soul 
there  glimmers  an  uncertain,  ominous  light.  The  style 
approaches  that  of  the  comedy  with  its  many  finely 
executed  touches  and  its  outward  calm,  which  makes 
the  fear  of  approaching  fate  flare  up  at  certain  points 
only  the  more  threateningly. 

This  same  mixture,  even  if  in  a  somewhat  different 
proportion,  is  shown  in  the  fairy-play,  Der  Traum  ein 
Leben  (1834).  The  technique  of  the  scenes,  passing  by 
in  vehement  rapidity,  is  successfully  caught  from  a 
dream  and  the  whole  dipped  in  the  gay  colors  of 
Oriental  splendor.  Greatness  is  recognised  as  danger- 
ous, Fame  as  an  idle  game : 

"  Was    er   giebt,   sind   nichts    als   Schatten, 
Was  er  nimmt,  es  1st  so  viel." 

How  deeply  this  conviction  was  rooted  in  Grillparzer 's 
breast,  is  shown  by  his  peculiar  plan  for  the  continuation 
of  the  first  part  of  Goethe's  Faust.  After  Gretchen's 


30  GERMAN  DRAMA 

terrible  catastrophe  Faust  was  to  take  thought  with 
himself  and  so  find  in  what  happiness  really  consists; 
in  self-limitation  and  peace  of  mind.  This  draft  re- 
mained undeveloped  but  Konig  Ottokars  Gluck  und 
Ende  (1825)  promulgated  the  same  doctrine  of  the 
ruin  which  follows  unbridled  desire.  Beside  Ottokar, 
who  in  many  of  his  characteristics  reminds  one  of 
Napoleon,  there  appeared  as  his  superior  opponent, 
Rudolf  Hapsburg,  the  founder  of  the  Austrian  Imperial 
dynasty.  With  warm  patriotism  Grillparzer  pictured 
him  in  his  simple,  capable,  unassuming  manliness  and 
thus  to  the  injury  of  the  drama  diverted  interest  from 
the  fate  of  Ottokar.  Here  alone  has  he  pictured  that 
passion,  otherwise  treated  most  frequently  by  modern 
dramatists,  viz:  lust  for  power.  Those  conflicts  ap- 
pealed more  strongly  to  him  which  interfered  rather 
with  the  fine  emotions  and  the  solution  of  which  is 
dependent  upon  the  peculiar  nature  of  the  characters 
concerned. 

For  this  reason  the  character  and  moral  conflict  of 
the  Palatine  Bankbanus  had  an  attraction  for  him. 
But  in  spite  of  all  the  charm  which  the  problem  and  its 
psychological  treatment  possesses  in  the  play,  Ein  treuer 
Diener  seines  Herrn  (1828),  there  is  after  all  something 
painful  and  whimsical  in  it,  because  the  servant's  faith- 
fulness gains  the  victory  over  more  worthy  human  char- 
acteristics and  because  one  can  only  with  difficulty  put 
himself  in  the  place  of  Bankbanus.  And  yet  the  poet 
succeeded  in  the  delineation  of  two  figures,  the  beautiful 
female  character  Ernys  and  the  arrogant  mad  Otto  von 
Meran,  which  are  counted  among  the  most  original  in 
all  German  dramatic  literature.  The  drama  was  played 
in  Vienna,  Feb.  28,  1828,  amid  storms  of  applause,  but 


FRANZ  GRILLPARZER  31 

immediately  afterwards  forbidden,  probably  because  a 
popular  revolt  is  described,  and  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
the  spirit  of  Metternich's  time,  the  spirit  of  implicit 
obedience,  found  in  the  play  its  most  brilliant  artistic 
expression. 

No  wonder  that  creative  work  became  distasteful  to 
the  poet.  Finally  he  desisted  entirely  from  offering  his 
contemporaries  new  gifts  when  his  comedy,  Weh'  dem, 
der  liigt,  at  its  first  production  in  1838  was  rejected 
by  the  stupid  audience  of  the  Burg-theater  at  Vienna. 
In  place  of  the  usual  shallow  drollery  of  comedy  there 
appears  in  this  work  a  theme  of  serious  importance  to 
humanity,  and  the  treatment  is  bright  and  masterly. 
The  conditional  nature  of  all  human  action,  which  must 
not  make  claim  to  perfection,  is  seen  in  the  examples 
of  the  bold,  lovable,  wily  scullion  Leon  and  of  the  wise 
and  extremely  kind  but  unsophisticated  Bishop  Gregory 
von  Tours.  Once  more  the  worlds  of  culture  and  of 
barbarism  are  contrasted  with  each  other.  The  rude 
ludicrous  tricks,  by  which  the  boorish  Germans  are 
characterized,  excited  for  a  long  time  the  greatest  sur- 
prise, until  the  genuine  poetry  and  great  merit  of  this 
comedy  were  recognized,  for  it  stands  alone  in  its  class. 

Grillparzer  had  still  more  than  a  generation  to  live, 
but  the  few  works  which  were  produced  in  this  period 
remained  locked  up  in  the  poet's  desk  because  he  did 
not  wish  to  expose  himself  to  the  fickle  judgment  of  a 
public  which  had  made  him  uncertain  of  himself.  In 
his  will  he  devised  that  two  of  his  most  valuable  dramas 
should  be  burned  after  his  death;  Ein  Bruderzwist  in 
Habsburg  and  Libussa.  Granted  that  the  first  of  these 
works  is  rightly  considered  ineffective,  the  author  has 
at  least  produced  in  Emperor  Rudolf  II  his  most  finely 


32  GERMAN  DRAMA 

conceived  tragic  figure.  Libussa  must,  as  symbolic 
poetry,  win  more  and  more  recognition,  the  farther  the 
knowledge  extends  that  the  greatest  problems  of  poetry 
lie  entirely  within  the  field  of  the  symbolic.  What  was 
prominent  before  in  Das  goldene  Vliess  and  in  ]V<  k ' 
dem,  der  lilgt — significant  indeed  but  not  a  chief  theme 
— the  representation  of  mankind  in  the  transition  from 
unconscious,  instinct-impelled  existence  to  conscious  will- 
ing and  doing,  this  is  in  this  play  in  the  dress  of  the 
fairy-story,  so  developed  that  the  pain  of  departing 
from  a  purely  natural  existence  and  the  blessings  of 
the  new  and  richer  life  of  a  more  highly  evolved  human- 
ity appear  in  the  same  warm  pure  light  of  historical 
knowledge. 

The  Judin  von  Toledo,  too,  did  not  become  known 
until  after  the  death  of  the  author.  Having  its  origin 
in  a  play  by  the  Spaniard,  Lope  de  Vega,  whom  Grill- 
parzer  honored  very  highly  in  his  old  age,  he  repre- 
sented the  youthful,  well-trained  king  as  consumed  by 
passion  for  the  cold,  sensual,  mendacious  Jewess  who 
is  endowed  with  all  the  charms  of  an  original  unex- 
hausted nature.  He  is  completely  enslaved.  But  he 
soon  awakens  sobered  from  his  excesses.  He  is  ashamed 
of  his  weakness  and  when  the  Jewess,  murdered  by  the 
queen  and  her  partisans,  lies  lifeless  before  him,  her 
charm  is  also  completely  destroyed.  And  yet  the  king 
recognizes  that  in  her  was  Truth,  "for  everything  that 
she  did  proceeded  from  herself,  suddenly,  unexpectedly 
and  without  precedent." 

The  Jiidim  von  Toledo  takes  rank  deservedly  with  the 
earlier  female  characters  of  Grillparzer,  charming  be- 
cause of  their  unconsciousness.  That  the  seeds  of  evil 
and  of  crime  grow  in  such  a  creature  under  the  cover- 


FRANZ  GRILLPARZER  33 

ing  of  a  most  attractive  lovableness  was  to  be  made 
manifest  in  Esther.  Only  the  beginning  of  this  drama 
was  worked  out  by  Grillparzer,  but  the  great  love-scene 
between  Esther  and  King  Ahasuerus  is  reckoned  among 
the  most  beautiful  in  all  poetry. 

Grillparzer  considered  it  the  goal  of  his  dramatic 
authorship  to  be  varied  and  life-like  down  to  the  smallest 
detail,  and  yet  at  the  same  time  never  to  lose  sight  of 
the  underlying  thought.  In  his  diary  he  once  called 
himself  ' '  that  middle  thing  between  Goethe  and  Kotzebue 
which  the  times  need"  and  if,  at  his  own  valuation, 
he  does  place  himself  too  low,  he  has  indeed  and  in 
truth,  without  allowing  the  great  main  lines  of  humanity 
to  vanish  entirely,  observed  better  than  the  classic 
writers  the  small  curiously  drawn  arabesques  of  per- 
sonages and  times,  while  at  the  same  time  he  acceded 
to  the  demand  for  external  theatrical  effect.  For  this 
reason  his  work  is  far  more  closely  related  to  the  tenden- 
cies of  the  authors  of  the  present  day,  especially  in  his 
later  dramas,  than  he  himself  suspected;  also  in  this, 
that  it  is  influenced  most  strongly  by  his  native  city 
Vienna  and  by  the  art  of  its  people. 

The  latter  also,  shows  the  same  fresh  appeal  to  the 
senses,  the  same  delight  in  little  carefully  observed 
characteristics,  the  same  lack  of  productive  energy. 
But  the  pleasure-loving  Viennese  were  entirely  hostile 
to  anything  over-subtle  and  did  not  want  to  know  any- 
thing of  the  great  problems  of  life. 


34  GERMAN  DRAMA 

FERDINAND  RAIMUND 

The  theater  in  the  suburb,  Leopoldstadt,  was  the 
home  of  the  folk-writers  of  Vienna,  who  incarnated  the 
gay  naive  disposition  of  the  lower  classes  in  scenes  from 
the  life  of  their  beautiful  Imperial  city.  Following 
the  old  traditions  of  the  Renaissance  tragedy  and  the 
opera  they  made  gods  and  spirits  appear  at  the  same 
time  in  their  plays.  Everything  was  calculated  for 
comic  effect ;  longer  than  anywhere  else  in  Germany  the 
clown  here  prolonged  his  dominion. 

For  this  stage  FERDINAND  RAIMUND  wrote  his  plays. 
He  was  the  son  of  a  turner,  born  June  1,  1790,  received 
a  brief  schooling  and  was  then  apprenticed  to  a  con- 
fectioner. At  eighteen  he  went  on  the  stage  and  from 
1817-1830  played  comic  parts  in  the  theater  of  the 
Leopoldstadt.  As  actor,  he  won  for  himself  from  the 
first  general  popularity.  He  first  supplemented  and 
revised  the  plays  in  which  he  acted.  Then  he  composed, 
entirely  in  the  style  of  the  old  Viennese  extravaganza, 
his  first  play,  Der  Barometermacher  auf  der  Zauberinsel 
(1823).  The  next  was  already  somewhat  more  inde- 
pendent, Der  Diamant  des  Geisterkonigs  (1824).  His 
attempt  to  give  a  somewhat  greater  seriousness  to  the 
form  of  the  fairy-play  produced  something  new  and 
more  valuable  in  das  Mddchen  aus  der  Feenwelt  oder  der 
Bauer  ah  Millionar  (1826).  This  is  a  picture  of  a 
typical  destiny  deduced  from  a  character  likewise  of  the 
nature  of  a  type.  Grillparzer  was  right  in  congratulat- 
ing Austria  that  the  healthy  sense  of  the  nation  could 
produce  such  graceful  plays.  He  says  pertinently  that 
Raimund's  half  unconscious  gift  has  its  root  in  the 
spirit  of  the  masses. 


FERDINAND  RAIMUND  35 

Grillparzer  ascribes  it  to  the  injudicious  zeal  of  well- 
meaning  friends  that  Raimund  attempted  to  leave  the 
broad  ground  of  the  popular  play.  But  the  ambition 
of  the  artist,  with  all  his  personal  modesty,  his  great 
respect  for  higher  culture,  for  him  no  longer  attainable, 
and  his  serious,  indeed,  gloomy  disposition  had  cer- 
tainly the  chief  part  in  the  change  that  now  took  place 
in  his  creations. 

When  Raimund,  after  a  severe  illness,  put  Die 
gefesselte  Phantasie  (1826)  and  Moisasurs  Zauberfluch 
(1827)  on  the  stage,  he  clothed  serious  problems  in  the 
usual  gay  magical  scenes  and  sought  to  attain  the  style 
of  great  tragedy.  But  it  was  not  a  success,  because 
a  labored  unnatural  style  had  taken  the  place  of  natural 
simplicity  and  the  cheery  element  indispensable  to 
folk-pieces  had  been  forcibly  repressed.  Therefore 
Raimund  turned  again  to  the  manner  of  his  first  plays 
and  with  ripened  powers  wrote  his  best  works:  Der 
Alpenkomg  und  der  Menschenfeind  (1828)  and  Der 
Verschwender  (1833).  The  self -tormenting  misanthrope 
had  already  shown  the  increasing  melancholy  of  the 
author  who  ended  his  life  by  suicide,  Sept.  5,  1836. 
With  him  came  to  an  end  also  the  old  Viennese  folk- 
play  with  its  innocent,  cheerful  mirth  and  its  soulful 
poetry ;  even  in  Raimund 's  day  a  talented  but  unscrupu- 
lous author  had  arisen  in  JOHANN  NESTROY  who  now  for 
thirty  years  ruled  the  stage  of  Vienna's  suburbs  and 
made  it  a  wrestling  place  for  sharp  satire,  bold  parody, 
frivolous  sensuality  and  the  greatest  absurdities. 


36  GERMAN  DRAMA 

PLAY  AND  COMEDY  (1800-1830) 

When  in  1800  Schiller  and  Goethe  offered  a  prize 
for  a  bright  play  suitable  for  the  stage,  thirteen  works 
were  sent  in.  Not  a  single  one  could  be  used,  the 
greater  number  were  beneath  criticism.  Each  and 
every  author  who  provided  for  the  daily  needs  of  the 
stage  was  a  follower  of  Kotzebue.  For  the  most  part 
they  were  players  and  directors  of  theatres,  such  as 
KARL  TOPFER,  who  wrote  Hermann  und  Dorothea  (1820), 
Des  Ko'nigs  Befehl  (1821),  Der  Pariser  Taugenichts 
(1839),  Rosenmiiller  und  Finke  (1850)  ;  Pius  ALEXAN- 
DER WOLFF,  the  follower  of  Goethe  in  Preziosa  (1821)  ; 
KARL  BLUM,  who  imported  the  short  opera,  called  vaude- 
ville, from  France,  and  composed  numerous  comedies 
in  Kotzebue 's  manner,  such  as  Ich  bleibe  ledig  (1835), 
Der  Ball  zu  Ellerbrunn  (1835),  Erziehungsresultate 
(1840). 

More  successful  than  all  the  stage  writers  of  the 
male  sex  in  their  day  were  the  two  actresses,  JOHANNA 
VON  WEISSENTHURN  and  CHARLOTTE  BIRCH-PFEIFFER. 
The  wretched  plays  and  comedies  of  the  former  with 
their  disguises  and  intrigues,  their  airy  speeches  and 
sentimentality  were  long  in  highest  favor  with  the 
public.  The  latter,  after  great  success  on  the  stage, 
turned  her  attention  from  1828  to  dramatising  popular 
novels  and  stories,  as  for  example,  Der  Glockner  von 
Notredame  after  Victor  Hugo  (1837),  Dorf  und  Stadt 
after  Berthold  Auerbach,  Die  Waise  aus  Lowood  after 
Charlotte  Bronte  (1856),  Die  Grille,  after  George  Sand 
(1860).  With  most  unerring  judgment  she  took  from 
her  "copy"  everything  that  would  contribute  to  out- 
ward effect  on  the  stage  and  wrote  most  acceptable 


PLAY  AND  COMEDY  37 

roles  for  the  players.  She  understood  how  to  make  her 
plays  affecting  and  exciting,  just  such  as  the  great 
body  of  the  public  demanded,  and  thus  won  triumphs 
which  in  duration  and  number  are  scarcely  to  be  sur- 
passed. 

At  all  times  the  folk-play  and  the  lower  type  of  drama 
have  occasionally  used  dialect  to  produce  comic  effect. 
Through  the  influence  of  the  Romanticists,  dialect,  so 
long  despised,  once  more  attained  a  high  degree  of 
literary  importance  and  the  drama  now  began  to  make 
use  of  it,  no  longer  exclusively  for  the  purpose  of 
amusement  but  also  as  a  means  of  delineating  character. 

DANIEL  ARNOLD  wrote  in  the  Strassburg  dialect  his 
Pfingstmontag  (1816),  a  work  which  Goethe  justly  ad- 
mired. KARL  MALSZ  sketched  the  rough  peculiarities 
of  the  Frankfort  people  in  numberless  local  plays  with 
stock-figures,  as  Der  alte  Bilrgerkapitdn  (1820).  Louis 
ANGELY  delineated  the  people  of  Berlin  in  the  twenties 
just  as  inoffensively  and  kindly  as  Raimund  did  the 
Viennese,  though  with  more  modest  poetic  talent,  e.  g., 
Das  Fest  der  Handwerker  (1828)  ;  JURGEN  NIKLAS 
BARMANN  composed  his  Hamburg  Burenspillen,  and  his 
fellow-countryman,  JAKOB  HEINRICH  DAVID,  wrote  local 
farces  which  were  long  popular,  such  as  Eine  Nacht 
auf  Wache  (1835).  All  the  writers  named  contented 
themselves  with  cautiously  avoiding  all  offence  to  the 
higher  classes  and  sketching  good  and  bad  in  their 
fellow  countrymen.  The  critics  ventured  at  most  to 
attack  municipal  authorities  and  regulations.  Just  in 
this  very  thing  can  be  seen  how  portentous  for  the  drama 
was  the  oppression  which,  after  the  War  of  Liberation, 
was  exercised  in  Germany.  The  play  was  supervised 
more  solicitously  than  any  other  class  of  literature. 


38  GERMAN  DRAMA 

And  yet  the  theatre  meant  then,  as  always  in  times 
of  political  decadence,  compensation  to  the  educated 
classes  for  the  part  denied  them  in  public  life.  That 
enthusiasm  which  was  not  allowed  to  take  an  active 
part  in  public  affairs  was  kindled  and  consumed  in 
the  enjoyment  of  inferior  writings  and  of  the  perform- 
ances of  actors  whose  importance  was  vastly  over-rated. 
When  one  reads  the  criticisms  of  Tieck  and  Ludwig 
Borne,  one  is  astonished  at  the  lack  of  critical  judgment 
against  which  they  had  continually  to  fight.  The  great 
works  of  Schiller  and  Goethe  appeared  but  rarely  and 
like  those  of  Shakespeare  became  the  sport  of  the  "star" 
actor  who,  lacking  all  reverence,  destroyed  the  very 
framework  of  these  noble  productions  for  the  sake  of 
external  effect. 

The  efforts  of  managers  of  artistic  taste,  such  as 
Schreyvogel  in  Vienna  and  Immermann  in  Diisseldorf, 
were  but  little  honored  even  in  individual  cases  and 
had  no  influence  at  all  upon  other  theatres,  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  the  means  for  a  proper  artistic  staging 
were  now  oftener  at  hand  because  of  the  establishment 
of  numerous  court  and  city  theatres. 

CHRISTIAN  DIETRICH  GRABBE 

There  was  no  place  in  these  theatres  for  such  a 
fantastical  genius  as  that  of  CHRISTIAN  DIETRICH 
GRABBE.  He  was  born  at  Detmold,  Dec.  1, 1801,  brought 
up  in  poor  circumstances  as  the  son  of  the  superintend- 
ent of  a  house  of  correction  and  while  a  student  wrote 
his  first  work,  Herzog  Theodor  von  Gothland  (1822). 
When  completed  he  sent  it  to  Tieck  and  demanded  that 
he  brand  him  publicly  as  an  impertinent  and  wretched 


CHRISTIAN  DIETRICH  GRABBE  39 

poetaster  if  he  found  his  tragedy  similar  to  the  products 
of  the  usual  writers  of  the  day.  In  this  utterance  is 
seen  his  mania  for  departing  from  the  customary  and 
it  put  its  stamp  upon  his  first  as  well  as  on  all  his 
later  dramas.  They  are  alive  with  bold  cynicism,  un- 
tamed caprice  but  also  with  great  and  genuine  passion. 
There  is  also  the  play  of  brilliant  humor,  profound 
contempt  for  the  world  and  insolent  arrogance  in  the 
comedy,  Schcrz,  Satire,  Ironie  und  tiefere  Bedeutung 
(1822),  and  it  cannot  be  staged  at  all. 

In  his  birthplace  Grabbe  got  a  small  position  and 
in  new  work  rose  to  clearer  heights.  Don  Juan  und 
Faust  (1824),  a  bold  attempt  to  contrast  with  one 
another  these  two  representatives  of  the  strongest  sen- 
sual and  intellectual  desires,  was  free  from  the  earlier 
outbreaks  of  affected  titanism.  In  the  two  tragedies, 
Kaiser  Friedrich  Barbarossa  (1829)  and  Kaiser  Hein- 
rich  VI  (1830),  he  succeeded,  with  far  greater  ability 
than  his  numerous  competitors,  in  comprehending  the 
spirit  of  history  and  the  mighty  figures  of  the  rulers  from 
the  race  of  the  Hohenstaufens.  But  here  already  is 
seen  the  style  of  presenting  a  series  of  scarcely  con- 
nected and  hastily  sketched  gigantic  frescoes  instead 
of  a  uniform  dramatic  picture. 

This  manner  amounts  to  the  grotesque  in  Grabbe 's 
most  important  work,  Napoleon  oder  die  hundert  Tage 
(1831).  He  makes  whole  battlefields  his  stage  and  de- 
spises all  the  requirements  of  dramatic  writing,  but  he 
gives  historic  pictures  of  true  grandeur  and  great  dis- 
tinctness. What  Grabbe  later  composed,  Hannibal, 
Aschenbrodel,  Die  Hermannsschlacht,  shows  that  the 
vice  of  drink  had  already  deranged  his  mind  even 
though  in  many  places  traces  of  his  original  power  were 


40  GERMAN  DRAMA 

still  visible.  His  early  death,  Sept.  12,  1836,  released 
him  from  an  existence  which  was  a  failure  because  of 
an  unfortunate  disposition  and  lack  of  will-power. 

In  his  article  on  Shakespearomania  (1827),  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  blind  admirers  and  imitators  of  Shakespeare, 
Grabbe  says,  "The  German  nation  wants  the  greatest 
possible  simplicity  and  clearness  in  language,  form  and 
plot,  it  wants  to  feel  in  tragedy  an  unbroken  inspira- 
tion, it  wants  to  find  true  and  deep  emotion,  it  wants 
a  national  and  at  the  same  time  a  genuinely  dramatic 
historical  play,  it  wants  not  English  but  German  char- 
acters, it  wants  strong  language  and  good  verse  and 
in  the  comic  scenes,  it  demands,  not  peculiar  turns  or 
witticisms,  which  except  for  the  form  of  expression 
have  nothing  witty  in  them,  but  sound  common  sense,  a 
wit  that  strikes  every  time  like  lightning,  a  poetic  and 
moral  power."  Finally  he  mentioned  Schiller  as  the 
writer  who  best  answered  to  these  requirements.  One 
sees,  however,  how  unreliable  Grabbe 's  judgment  is  when 
he  calls  Milliner's  Schuld  and  Konig  Ingurd  the  most 
satisfactory  works  since  Schiller's  death. 

Grabbe  did  not  attempt  in  any  way  to  meet  in  his 
own  dramas  the  requirements  he  mentions.  With  his 
striving  after  a  faithful  reproduction  of  reality  and  his 
contempt  of  all  ideals,  he  may  be  considered  one  of 
the  precursors  of  that  trend  which  later  took  a  position 
hostile  to  classic  and  romantic  poetry. 

Grabbe  had  as  contemporary  GEORG  BUCHNER,  who. 
as  a  naturalist,  proclaimed  the  absolute  necessity  of  all 
that  happens  being  considered  as  under  the  dominion 
of  the  laws  of  nature,  as  for  instance  in  his  drama 
Dantcm's  Tod  (1835),  in  his  posthumous  comedy  Leonce 
und  Lena  and  in  the  fragment  Wozzek.  Everywhere 


ROMANTIC  OPERA  41 

he  aimed  at  transferring  the  world  of  reality  without 
change  into  his  artistic  production.  Like  most  natural- 
ists he  was  attracted  only  by  the  dark  sides  of  life 
which  he  reproduced  with  the  keenest  powers  of  observa- 
tion in  all  their  particulars,  even  the  most  repulsive. 
Later  ALBERT  DULK  pursued  a  similar  course  in  his 
dramas  Orla  (1844),  Simson  (1859)  and  Jesus  der 
Christ  (1865) ;  also  ROBERT  GRIEPENKERL  in  Maximilian 
Robespierre  (1851)  and  Die  Girondisten  (1852). 

ROMANTIC   OPERA. 

The  musical  drama  was  created  in  Italy  at  the  end 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  for  the  purpose  of  reviving,  by 
the  use  of  an  elevated  recitative,  the  solemn  effect  of 
the  Greek  tragedy,  but  it  soon  became  the  prey  of  stars 
of  the  singing  world  and  of  the  desire  for  display.  Later 
the  genius  of  GLUCK  restored  again  the  original  charac- 
ter of  the  opera  and  at  the  same  time  there  developed 
from  the  modest  operetta  that  style  which,  uniting  an 
attractive  appeal  to  the  senses  with  great  dramatic 
passion,  found  in  MOZART  its  master  and  greatest  ex- 
ponent. After  his  death  this  style  degenerated  in  Ger- 
many into  humdrum  Philistinism  and  sentimentality, 
while  the  great  French  and  Italian  masters,  such  as 
Mehul,  Cherubini,  Rossini  and  Auber,  were  trying  to 
unite  the  dignity  of  Gluck  with  the  inimitable  sublime 
charm  of  Mozart. 

Only  one  immortal  opera  in  classic  style  was  written 
during  this  time  in  Germany,  Beethoven's  Fidelio,  the 
text  of  which,  adapted  at  first  by  Joseph  Sonnleithner 
and  then  by  Friedrich  Treitschke,  effectively  glorified 
conjugal  fidelity  in  the  simplest  dramatic  form.  Three 


42  GERMAN  DRAMA 

times  revised,  this,  the  only  opera  by  Beethoven,  received 
its  final  form  in  1814.  It  combines  chaste  grandeur 
and  warm  genuine  feeling  within  its  strictly  drawn 
outlines. 

Although  there  was  still  found  in  classic  opera  a 
number  of  noble  masters  such  as  Louis  SPOHR,  and  in 
comic  opera  such  a  successful  talent  as  ALBERT  LORTZING 
who  wrote  Zar  und  Zimmermann  (1837),  and  Der 
Waffenschmied  (1845),  yet  after  all  the  leadership  fell 
from  now  on  to  the  Romanticists.  The  longing  to  ex- 
press the  unconscious,  the  delight  in  musical  effects,  the 
dislike  to  reasonable  clearness — all  this  went  to  make 
music  one  of  the  fundamentals  of  the  art  of  Romantic 
writers  and  while  they  had  tried  in  vain  to  win  success 
in  spoken  drama,  the  German  opera  of  the  nineteenth 
century  became  permeated  with  their  spirit  and  chose  its 
materials  from  their  favorite  fields,  the  fairy-story,  Ger- 
man legend  and  the  life  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

CARL  MARIA  VON  WEBER  was  the  creator  of  the  Roman- 
tic opera.  In  the  year  1821  he  finished  his  Freischiitz, 
for  which  Friedrich  Kind  had  written  the  text  accord- 
ing to  a  Bohemian  legend  as  told  by  Apel.  The  national 
character  of  the  subject,  the  richness  of  melody,  and 
the  employment  of  new  and  highly  impressive  means  of 
instrumentation  prepared  the  way  for  the  immense 
success  of  the  Freischiitz,  by  which  means  it  gained  the 
ascendancy  over  the  prevailing  Italian  art  and  has  re- 
mained the  most  popular  German  opera  down  to  the 
present  day. 

Weber  in  this  work  had  already  made  use  of  recur- 
ring themes,  for  the  purposes  of  characterization,  and 
began  to  do  away  with  the  endless  arias  which  destroyed 
dramatic  connection  and  to  employ  those  freer  recita- 


ROMANTIC  OPERA  43 

tives  which  are  on  the  border-line  between  song  and 
declamation.  The  dramatic  element,  represented  up 
to  that  time  by  the  language  alone,  had  played  but  an 
unimportant  part;  now  it  appeared  in  the  music  on  an 
equality  with  the  melody.  At  the  same  time  greater 
demands  were  made  on  the  acting  skill  of  the  singers. 
The  orchestra  now  no  longer  served  the  purpose  of 
giving  body  and  greater  fulness  of  tone  by  its  accom- 
paniment, but  it  began,  with  its  explanations  and  supple- 
ments, to  develop  independently  alongside  the  singing 
voices  and  in  its  own  purely  instrumental  movements 
to  become  a  significant  factor  of  the  opera. 

A  second  great  work  of  Weber's,  Euryanthe  (1823), 
unsuccessful,  indeed,  because  of  the  unfavorable  sub- 
ject, was  still  farther  removed  from  the  old-style  opera 
by  its  exact  declamation  and  the  strong  emphasis  laid  on 
characterization  and  on  dramatic  passion.  In  these 
matters  it  showed  still  more  clearly  the  road  leading  to 
the  art  of  Richard  Wagner. 

Between  Weber  and  Wagner  the  link  is  HEINRICH 
MARSCHNER.  In  his  Hans  Heiling  (1833)  we  hear,  in 
addition  to  the  strains  of  the  Freischiitz,  the  advance 
notes  of  the  Fliegende  Hollander. 

In  the  meantime  the  so-called  "Grand  Opera"  had 
developed  in  France  and  Italy.  It  originated,  as  did 
the  German  romantic  opera,  in  an  opposition  to  the 
quiet,  dispassionate  art  of  the  classic  writer  and  chose 
its  subjects  from  the  same  domains  as  the  former;  it 
did  not  aim,  however,  at  plunging  into  the  unexplored 
depths  of  the  soul  nor  at  portraying  the  mysterious 
workings  of  nature,  but,  by  the  use  of  strong  and  visible 
passion,  did  aim  at  arousing  at  all  costs  powerful  emo- 
tion. In  the  choice  of  subjects  and  of  artistic  expedi- 


44  GERMAN  DRAMA 

ents  it  therefore  followed  the  like-minded  Romantic 
writers  of  the  French.  It  dazzled  by  an  accumulation 
of  all  effects  that  appeal  to  the  senses,  it  offered  a 
full,  exciting  though  often  quite  senseless  plot  and 
brilliant  stage-scenes  to  which  an  extrinsic  grandeur  was 
given  by  massive  music  and  crowds  of  actors;  it  antici- 
pated all  the  lower  instincts  of  singers  and  public  and 
ruthlessly  destroyed  unity  and  truth  by  interjecting 
showy  songs  and  ballets. 

As  in  the  old  Italian  opera  so  here  the  drama  was 
only  an  excuse  for  the  satisfaction  of  curiosity  and  of 
the  vulgar  passion  for  unusual  performances  of  the 
singing  voice.  But  more  cunningly  than  their  predeces- 
sors the  composers  of  "Grand  Opera"  and  their  com- 
plaisant text-writers  succeeded  in  concealing  these  pur- 
poses from  a  shortsighted  public  by  an  appearance  of 
dramatic  unity. 

The  most  noteworthy  representative  of  this  art  was 
JACOB  MEYERBEER.  He  had  constant  success  from  Rob- 
ert der  Teufel  (1831)  and  Die  Hugenotten  (1836)  down 
to  his  last  work  die  Afrikanerin  which  was  first  played 
in  the  year  after  his  death  (1864).  All  this  time  he 
dominated  the  German  as  well  as  the  French  operatic 
stage. 

Only  when  one  recognizes  the  pernicious  influence 
of  Meyerbeer  upon  the  German  public,  does  one  com- 
prehend the  passionate  wrrath  with  which  all,  who  had 
the  opera  seriously  at  heart,  fought  against  him.  At 
their  head  stand  Robert  Schumann  and  Peter  Cornelius, 
who,  with  their  weak  dramatic  talents,  tried  in  vain 
to  win  the  stage  back  to  pure  art,  and  Richard  Wagner, 
the  victor  in  this  strife. 


GERMAN  DRAMA  FROM  1830-85 

YOUNG  GERMANY  AND  ITS  FOLLOWERS 

The  fifty-five  years  from  1830-85  present  a  picture 
of  the  condition  of  the  German  drama  outwardly  similar 
to  that  of  the  preceding  period.  Schiller  remains,  with 
few  exceptions,  the  only  model  for  tragedy,  and  the 
tradition  of  Romanticism  continues  with  decreasing  in- 
fluence until  it  gradually  dies  out.  The  great  changes 
in  the  political  and  social  conditions  of  Germany  do 
not  find  expression  on  the  stage.  The  greatest  writers 
of  the  times,  who  are  aiming  at  a  new  art  suited  to 
their  day,  are  scarcely  noticed  and  gain  no  influence 
over  the  production  of  the  others  or  the  taste  of  the 
spectators.  The  German  drama  keeps  sinking  lower 
and  lower  to  a  powerless  decadence.  The  theatre  be- 
comes more  and  more  the  home  of  hollow  phrases  and 
shallow  entertainment  while  the  belief  in  the  exclusive 
rights  of  the  idealizing  form  is  strenuously  upheld. 
Musical  drama  alone  reaches  the  highest  point  of  its 
development  through  the  mighty  creative  work  of  Rich- 
ard Wagner. 

How  little  it  was  possible  in  this  period  to  convert 
the  correct  perception  of  the  artistic  needs  of  the 
present  into  deeds  is  shown  by  the  example  of  that 
group  of  writers  brought  together  under  the  name, 
Das  junge  Deutschland.  They  represented  in  general 
the  demands  of  the  Liberals  in  Paris  in  the  July-revolu- 

45 


46  GERMAN  DRAMA 

tion  of  1830  and  opposed  the  romanticist  alienation  from 
life  and  reality  as  well  as  all  false  idealism  and  visionary 
caprice.  LUDOLF  WIENBARG,  the  aesthetic  authority  of 
''Young  Germany,"  insists  upon  the  treatment  of  sub- 
jects true  to  and  full  of  life  and  emphasizes  above  all 
what  is  important  for  the  present  of  any  particular 
time.  The  place  of  poetic  fancy  is  to  be  taken  by  that 
enthusiasm  which  inspires  to  deeds.  The  Middle  Ages 
have  outlived  themselves  and  a  protest  is  made  against 
dead  and  hollow  formulas  and  also  against  the  attempts 
to  regenerate  the  present  with  the  help  of  the  ancient. 
From  the  drama  Wienbarg  demands  national  spirit  but 
not  in  the  form  of  nature  poetry,  as  the  Romanticists 
made  it,  but  as  a  work  of  art  with  a  democratic  trend, 
filled  with  the  idea  of  a  body  of  free  citizens  who  had 
become  of  age  in  a  political  sense.  His  second  require- 
ment was  that  the  contents  should  be  national  and  yet 
not  in  the  historical  form  of  Goethe's  and  Schiller's 
works  and  those  of  their  successors.  For  poetry  is  not 
dramatized  history  and  national  contents  do  not  depend 
upon  national  and  historical  material  but  upon  the  fact 
that  they  are  interesting  and  valuable  for  the  whole 
nation,  that  is,  are  national  in  the  true  sense.  From 
this  is  derived  the  third  requirement  of  contents  suited 
to  the  times.  The  youth  are  to  fight  on  against  the 
tenacity  and  opposition  of  reactionary  efforts  in  all 
departments  and  begin  with  what  the  "Storm  and 
Stress"  writers  strove  for  and  in  the  same  sense. 

These  requirements  were  met  only  in  a  very  small 
degree  by  the  ' '  Young  Germany ' '  writers,  Heine,  Laube, 
Gutzkow,  in  their  dramatic  works.  Heine  was  never 
again  active  as  a  dramatic  writer  after  his  first  abortive 
attempts,  Laube  and  Gutzkow  were  both  too  very  eager 


YOUNG  GERMANY  AND  ITS  FOLLOWERS     47 

for  stage  effect  to  place  themselves  by  innovations  in 
decided  opposition  to  the  prevailing  taste. 

This  external  theatrical  technique,  this  cool  scheming 
for  effect  which  had  scarcely  been  known  before  in 
Germany,  at  least  in  tragedy,  was  to  be  ascribed  to 
the  strong  influence  of  French  models.  Victor  Hugo 
and  Alexander  Dumas,  pere,  at  the  head  of  the  French 
Romanticists  in  historical  drama,  had  taught  them  ex- 
aggerated delineation  of  character  and  inconsiderate 
working  on  the  emotions  of  the  public,  while  at  the  same 
time  Eugene  Scribe,  aided  by  numerous  contemporane- 
ous playwrights,  dominated  the  stages  of  Europe  with 
his  comedies.  A  fine  outer  polish,  the  greatest  skill  in 
all  that  was  technical,  complete  lack  of  any  deeper 
spirit,  exciting  intrigues,  often  carried  out  at  the  cost 
of  reality,  these  are  the  attributes  which  mark  Scribe. 
The  influence  of  this  thoroughly  superficial  but  ever 
graceful  and  entertaining  class  of  drama  reaches  down 
into  the  present  and  for  a  long  time  represented  alone 
finer  comedy  in  Germany. 

HEINRICH  LAUBE  was  the  best  judge  of  the  theatre, 
the  foremost  manager  whom  Germany  possessed  in  the 
nineteenth  century.  As  director  of  the  Burg-theatre 
in  Vienna,  he  did  a  great  work  from  1849-66  in  the 
training  of  the  players  and  in  the  enlargement  of  the 
repertoire.  But  for  the  author  those  excellencies  were 
fateful  which  stood  the  director  in  good  stead.  The 
mechanical  nature  of  the  effects  was  too  much  in  the 
foreground  and  instead  of  creating  men  he  saw  only 
players  guided  by  the  invisible  hand  of  the  manager. 
Therefore  the  most  of  his  dramas  are  to-day  as  good 
as  forgotten.  Die  Karlsschiiler  (1841)  alone  is  still 
played  here  and  there,  not  because  of  its  intrinsic  merit 


48  GERMAN  DRAMA 

but  because  young  Schiller,  the  author  of  Die  Rduber, 
is  its  hero;  with  it  the  tragedy,  Graf  Essex  (1856), 
keeps  its  place  because  of  some  good  roles. 

KARL  GUTZKOW,  too,  strives  after  external  effect  but 
with  greater  talent  and  more  genuine  passion  than  the 
cool  and  prudent  Laube.  Gutzkow  said  to  himself, 
"The  theatre  is  to  reconcile  life  with  art  and  art  with 
life";  "Put  men  on  the  boards  who  are  taken  not  from 
past  centuries  but  from  the  present,  not  from  the  Assyr- 
ians and  Babylonians — no,  from  your  own  surround- 
ings." But  when  his  first  attempts  to  present  the  in- 
herent contrasts  of  the  times  upon  the  stage  had  failed, 
he  turned  again  to  historical  drama  and  only  in  the 
choice  of  his  subjects  and  in  his  judgments  upon  the 
conduct  of  his  heroes  did  he  permit  the  liberal  view- 
point of  "Young  Germany"  to  be  seen. 

On  the  border  line  between  the  modern  and  the  his- 
torical plays  of  Gutzkow  stands  his  best  work,  Uriel 
Acosta  (1847),  changed  from  a  short  story  to  a  drama 
of  great  elevation  and  genuine  vitality.  The  conflict 
between  liberal  thought  and  positive  dogma,  between 
a  sense  of  independence  and  of  reverence,  is  here  very 
effectively  converted  into  a  succession  of  scenes  argued 
from  a  purely  human  standpoint;  the  characters,  with 
the  exception  of  the  pale  youthful  Spinoza  who  comes 
in  at  the  end,  are  drawn  clearly  and  with  life.  This 
drama  may  therefore  be  characterized  as  the  best  of 
its  kind,  though  it  clearly  shows  the  traces  of  decadence 
in  its  too  strong  pathos,  its  lack  of  characteristic  shad- 
ing in  the  language  and  in  its  delight  in  strong,  stirring 
and  extraneous  incidents. 

In  the  field  of  historical  comedy  Gutzkow  also  stands 
at  the  head  of  his  contemporaries.  Zopf  und  Schwert 


YOUNG  GERMANY  AND  ITS  FOLLOWERS    49 

(1844)  does  not  do  justice  to  the  historical  importance 
of  Friedrich  Wilhelm  I,  the  central  figure  of  the  play, 
because  the  powerful,  far-seeing  monarch  is  degraded  to 
a  blustering  family  tyrant;  but  the  tone  is  well  caught, 
the  intrigues  are  clever  and  exciting,  after  the  style 
of  Scribe,  the  characters  superficial  indeed  and  yet  not 
inaccurately  delineated,  and  there  is  no  lack  of  that 
deeper  spirit  which  is  just  as  indispensable  in  comedy 
as  in  tragedy.  The  higher  signification  of  the  whole 
class  is  the  subject  of  the  comedy,  Das  Urbild  des 
Tartu ffe  (1847).  It  does  not  equal  Zopf  und  Schwert 
in  outward  effect  but  its  artistic  merit  is  greater. 

While  these  two  works  are  now  very  unjustly  neg- 
lected and  only  rarely  considered  by  the  stage,  Der 
Konigsleutnant  (1849)  has  held  its  ground  up  to  the 
present.  It  was  originally  merely  destined  to  celebrate 
the  centennial  of  Goethe's  birth  and  the  author  says 
in  his  preface  by  way  of  excuse:  "Opportunity  is  the 
stepsister  of  the  Muse."  He  knew  very  well  that  he 
had  not  offered  in  this  play  a  work  of  art,  but  thanks 
to  an  effective  role,  the  favor  of  actors  has  prolonged 
the  life  of  this  mawkish  sentimental  play  far  beyond 
its  own  inherent  vitality. 

Dependent  upon  the  French  or  their  "Young  Ger- 
man" imitators  were  a  number  of  other  dramatists 
whose  works  attracted  the  public  because  of  their  strong 
scenic  effects  and  themes  acceptable  to  the  actors.  To- 
day they  are  all  rightly  forgotten,  the  most  successful 
of  them  alone,  EMIL  BRACHVOGEL'S  Narziss  (1856),  not 
having  yet  quite  lost  its  attractiveness  for  travelling 
' '  stars. ' '  The  charm  exercised  by  this  degenerate  genius 
with  his  philosophical  paradoxes  and  his  despairing 
humor,  as  well  as  the  interesting  condition  of  French 


50  GERMAN  DRAMA 

society  before  the  Revolution,  are  made  the  most  of  for 
the  sake  of  effect.  But  there  is  a  lack  of  all  deeper 
conception  of  the  spirit  of  the  times  and  of  the  historical 
personages  introduced;  in  their  conversations  they  rep- 
resent the  political  tendencies  of  liberalism  and  the 
materialism,  colored  by  natural  science,  of  the  author's 
own  times. 

In  comedy  the  clever  technique  of  the  style  of  Scribe 
could  be  better  preserved  than  in  serious  drama,  es- 
pecially where  a  stronger  temper  broke  through  the  out- 
ward polish  and  coldness  of  the  French  models.  In 
this  way  EDWARD  VON  BAUERNFELD  succeeded  in  de- 
lineating skilfully  and  ably,  kindly  and  feelingly,  the 
society  of  Vienna.  As  with  the  French  so  also  with 
him  there  is  a  graceful  vivacity  in  the  conversations. 
A  fine  cultivation  of  mind  is  revealed  in  the  spontaneity 
of  his  wit,  in  his  fear  of  the  trivial;  a  strong  common 
sense,  enthusiasm  for  freedom  and  a  cheery  optimism 
give  his  works  their  glow  and  make  it  possible  to  over- 
look the  theatrical  artifices  which  he,  too,  does  not 
disdain  for  the  sake  of  success.  With  his  comedy 
Biirgerlich  und  Romantisch  (1835),  which  shows  all 
the  best  characteristics  of  the  author,  he  reached  the 
climax  of  his  powers;  among  his  numerous  dramas 
Die  Bekenntnisse  (1834),  Gross jdhrig  (1846),  and  Ein 
deutscher  Krieger  (1847)  are  also  of  a  superior  order. 

From  the  French  GUSTAV  FREYTAG  also  learned  what 
is  best  in  his  dramatic  technique.  In  his  first  comedy, 
Die  Brautfahrt  oder  Kunz  von  der  Rosen  (1841),  he 
allowed  himself  to  be  governed  too  much  by  the  Roman- 
tic delight  in  the  bright  game  of  life  without  considera- 
tion for  the  demands  of  the  stage ;  then  he  produced  in 
Die  Valentine  (1846)  a  brightly  colored  play  of  in- 


YOUNG  GERMANY  AND  ITS  FOLLOWERS       51 

trigue  which  with  all  its  cleverness  was  not  successful 
because  genuine  dramatic  power  is  lacking  in  the  funda- 
mental theme.  The  same  thing  is  true,  too,  of  Graf 
Waldemar  (1850),  which  does  not  portray  convincingly 
enough  the  conversion  of  a  blase  worldling  by  the 
awakening  of  a  genuine  and  noble  love.  With  Die 
Journalist  en  (1853)  alone  did  Freytag  gain  a  great 
and  lasting  influence  because  he  found  in  it  the  subject 
most  suitable  for  his  peculiar  talent  and  his  acquired 
powers.  The  political  extremes,  at  that  time  occupying 
the  centre  of  general  interest  instead  of  artistic  and 
philosophical  questions,  are  made  use  of  with  success; 
the  vocation  of  the  journalist  is  faithfully  described  in 
its  ideal  importance  and  from  its  dark  sides,  the  whole 
giving  a  slightly  idealized  but  yet  not  an  indistinct 
picture  of  German  life,  sketched  with  a  sure  hand  and 
finished  with  fresh  colors  here  and  there  somewhat  too 
indifferent  and  cool.  It  is  a  very  great  pity,  but  it 
shows  Freytag 's  clear  self-knowledge,  that  he  did  not 
determine  to  attempt  something  further  in  the  domain 
of  comedy  after  this  so  singular  success.  His  one 
dramatic  work  of  later  origin,  Die  Fabler  (1859),  was 
a  tragedy  which  represented  the  fall  of  a  great  Roman 
family  in  conflict  with  the  needs  of  the  newly  organized 
state.  This  significant  but  singular  play  could  not  hold 
its  place  on  the  stage. 


52  GERMAN  DRAMA 

MIDDLE-CLASS  COMEDY  AND  THE  FARCE 

Even  after  1830  the  majority  of  writers  of  German 
comedy  were  still  following  the  methods  of  Iff  land  and 
Kotzebue.  The  consummation  of  a  marriage  in  middle- 
class  life,  trade  and  the  maintenance  of  an  honorable, 
comfortable  living  is  the  sole  question  with  these 
authors.  The  horizon  is  purposely  narrowed  as  much 
as  possible,  and  not  a  single  glance  wanders  beyond 
the  borders  of  the  small  town.  For  a  long  time  there 
was  not  to  be  found  in  these  plays  a  breath  of  modern 
times,  with  its  railways  and  telegraphs,  its  export  in- 
dustries and  its  political  contests.  Especially  the  latter 
were  passed  over  most  carefully  so  as  in  no  way  to  dis- 
turb the  harmless  doings  of  the  townspeople.  There- 
fore the  ethical  teachings  of  these  plays  grow  more  and 
more  nervous,  branding  all  independent  expression  of 
emotion  as  immoral.  The  sentiments  are  inherently 
mendacious  and  hypocritical,  propriety  is  made  the 
standard  for  the  individual  and  all  great  disinterested 
actions  and  all  independent  striving  to  higher  things 
meet  with  bitter  hostility. 

This  seemingly  innocent  class  of  plays  became  in  real- 
ity very  dangerous  and  harmful,  above  all  because  they 
stood  for  a  long  time  in  the  way  of  genuine  art  and  be- 
cause, worse  than  the  French  plays  which  were  de- 
cried because  of  their  immorality,  they  nattered  the 
lower  inclinations,  the  laziness  of  mind  and  the  self-com- 
placency of  the  German  middle-classes.  Down  to  the 
present  day  they  continue  unchanged,  inwardly  coarse 
and  outwardly  proper,  except  that  corresponding  to  the 
change  of  public,  their  horizon  has  also  apparently  wid- 
ened a  little  and  instead  of  the  houses  of  small  merchants 


MIDDLE-CLASS  COMEDY  AND  THE  FARCE    53 

we  now  see  the  electric-lighted  villas  of  wholesale  manu- 
facturers, councillors  and  merchant-princes. 

At  the  first  glance  one  cannot  of  course  estimate  this 
unfavorable  influence  in  its  whole  extent,  when  one  con- 
siders, for  example,  the  plays  of  RODERICK  BENEDIX, 
which  seem  to  aim  only  at  exciting  hilarity  especially  by 
means  of  comic  situations.  At  most  one  will  get  an- 
noyed with  the  clumsy,  stupid  dialogue  and  smile  at 
the  lack  of  all  finer  details  in  the  drawing  of  the  charac- 
ters, and  the  rude,  axe-hewn  plot.  And  yet  the  truth 
of  what  has  been  said  will  soon  be  acknowledged  when 
one  thinks  of  the  immense  numbers  and  the  popularity 
of  the  works  of  this  class  which  rob  better  ones  of  light 
and  air.  The  differences  in  merit  are  scarcely  sufficient 
to  enable  one  to  pick  out  individual  names  from  the 
host  of  comedy-writers  of  the  recent  past  who  are  for 
the  most  part  stage-experts  and  often  in  no  way  lacking 
in  talent.  But  public  success  gives  some  names  a  better 
sound,  such  as,  for  example,  JEAN  BAPTIST  VON 
SCHWEITZER,  JULIUS  ROSEN  and  FRANZ  VON  SCHONTHAN. 
GUSTAV  MOSER  achieved  the  greatest  effect  with  his 
somewhat  finer  judgment  and  light  work.  His  farce, 
Der  Bibliothekar  (1878),  verges  on  absurdity  but  to  its 
advantage  is  distinguished  by  genuine  fun  from  the 
weak  hilarity  of  most  of  the  middle-class  comedies. 

The  so-called  folk-plays  are  a  grade  lower  in  artistic 
merit.  They  take  their  character's  from  the  people,  for 
example,  from  the  ranks  of  the  mechanics  and  laborers, 
inclusive  of  the  proletariat,  and  from  the  view-point  of 
middle-class  ignorance  of  the  true  life  of  these  lower 
classes  deal  with  the  surface  of  this  existence,  the  essence 
of  which  is  falsely  taken  to  be  merely  a  longing  for  the 
comfort  of  the  middle  classes  and  an  amusing  lack  of 


54  GERMAN  DRAMA 

education  and  society  manners.  The  "authors"  sup- 
pose that  they  have  found  a  proper  style  for  this  class 
when  they  forego  all  artistic  care  in  plot  and  charac- 
terization and  with  the  rudest  mechanical  technique 
preach  an  obtrusive  philistine  morality. 

The  actor  and  manager  HUGO  MULLER  made  a  valu- 
able gift  in  this  line  to  the  theatres  of  lower  rank  with 
his  folk-play,  Von  Stufe  zu  Stufe,  while  ADOLF  L'An- 
RONGE,  who  ranks  a  little  higher,  became  a  welcome 
helper  of  court  and  city  theatres  in  the  sterile  seventies 
with  his  plays,  Mein  Leopold  (1877),  Hasemamis  Tochter 
(1877)  and  Doktor  Klaus  (1878).  An  honorable  dispo- 
sition is  the  distinguishing  feature  of  all  his  characters 
and  to  this  especially,  together  with  cheap  and  oft 
repeated  expedients  to  produce  effect,  is  owing  the  favor 
of  sentimental  people  who  believe  that  they  hear  in  his 
plays  the  voice  of  the  German  folk-soul. 

One  must  not  confuse  these  folk-plays,  a  degenerate 
subdivision  of  the  domestic  play,  with  the  farce  (Posse) 
which,  as  a  dramatic  form  of  contemporary  satire,  has 
grown  up  in  quite  a  different  field.  The  Berlin  spirit, 
strongly  permeated  with  Jewish  elements,  was  its  foster- 
ing soiL  Its  ancestors  were  the  writers  of  operettas  and 
dialect-plays;  its  father  was  DAVID  KALISCH.  The 
loosely  woven  plot  is  intended  to  beget  a  very  small 
measure  of  excitement,  because  it  is  only  the  framework 
upon  which  is  hung  one  after  another  a  mass  of  puns, 
comic  situations  and  satirical  references  to  events  of 
the  day,  and  these  entirely  conceal  it.  The  form  of 
couplets  perfected  by  Kalisch  joined  these  real  gems  of 
the  farce  into  brilliant  showy  plays.  In  his  hands  they 
did  not  fall  out  of  their  setting  and  become,  as  they  did 
later,  an  abuse.  He  also  continued  to  aim  at  a  connected 


MIDDLE-CLASS  COMEDY  AND  THE  FARCE    55 

characterization  which  often  caricatured  definite  per- 
sonages, and  at  an  outward  propriety.  He  possessed 
also  a  genuine,  rich,  sparkling  humor.  Only  in  AUGUST 
WEYRAUCH  did  Kalisch  find  a  successor  of  somewhat 
equal  rank.  To-day  the  Berlin  farce,  his  creation,  is 
the  prey  of  a  nasty  reckoning  upon  coarse  sensuality; 
in  it  absurdity  alone  wields  the  sceptre  and  it  is  dis- 
tinguished from  the  rude  comic  of  the  circus  clown  by 
its  ribald  expressions  and  the  situations  which  excite 
the  horse-laugh. 

As  in  Berlin,  so  also  everywhere  the  dialect  and  local 
play  has  degenerated.  In  Vienna,  it  experienced  its 
greatest  prosperity  because  of  the  stage-writers  in  Leo- 
poldstadt,  and  here,  in  Nestroy's  day  and  afterwards, 
many  of  the  most  productive  and  clever  writers  of  the 
class  arose,  as  for  example,  FRIEDRICH  KAISER.  But 
the  exclusive  purpose  of  diverting  their  unassuming 
public  and  of  touching  their  emotions  by  the  cheapest 
means,  as  well  as  blind  local  patriotism  and  the  arbi- 
trariness of  individual  favorite  actors,  had  in  the  long 
run  a  completely  destructive  influence.  There  were  in- 
deed in  the  peasant  plays  of  upper  Bavaria  the  begin- 
nings of  an  improvement  in  dramatic  dialect-writing, 
but  here  also  sentimentality,  low  comic  and  mere  theat- 
rical effect  remain  the  characteristics  of  a  tendency  ob- 
noxious to  art  and  of  theatrical  unnaturalness  only  im- 
perfectly disguised  by  a  covering  of  naive  feeling  and 
peasant  rudeness. 

The  only  truly  dramatic  works  dipped  in  the  colors  of 
dialect  went  by  unheeded.  These  were  the  comedies  in 
the  Darmstadt  dialect,  Des  Burschen  Heimkekr  oder  der 
tolle  Hund  (1837)  and  Der  Datterich  (1840),  com- 
posed by  the  highly  gifted  but  early  degenerate  ERNST 


56  GERMAN  DRAMA 

ELIAS  NIEBERGALL.  The  second  work  especially  is  filled 
with  a  genuine  cynical  humor,  by  which  a  ragged  genius 
is  raised  above  the  cleverly  caricatured  philistines  who 
do  not  notice  how  he  is  despising  them  while  serving 
as  their  jester.  In  this  portrait  Niebergall  stands  out 
as  the  precursor  of  Gerhart  Hauptmann's  College 
Grampian,  which  appeared  over  half  a  century  later. 
As  a  link  between  the  two  we  have  the  great  phenomenon 
of  LUDWIG  ANZENGRUBER,  who  again  raised  German 
dialect  and  folk-plays  into  the  domain  of  art. 

IDEALIZING  DRAMA 

In  the  high  class  theatres  folk-plays  and  dialect-pieces 
were  entirely  tabooed  during  this  period.  The  prevail- 
ing art-ideal  only  permitted  that  to  pass  current  which 
created  another  and  better  world  far  removed  from 
reality  and  which  showed  the  outward  characteristics  of 
harmonious  beauty.  This  limited  view  originated  in 
the  days  of  the  Classicists  and  Romanticists.  The  clari- 
fied serenity  of  Hellenism  was  present  to  their  minds  as 
the  final  goal.  Their  longing  for  a  more  beautiful  life 
wished  to  find  satisfaction  in  literature.  Where  a  great 
talent  like  Grillparzer's  was  at  work  with  this  end  in 
view,  there  were  produced  grand  works  which  did  not 
lack  inherent  warmth  and  truth,  but  when  lesser  talents 
aspired  to  the  same  thing  the  result  was  smooth  out- 
ward form  without  substance  and  the  power  of  life  was 
lacking  in  the  shadowy  forms.  The  tragical  did  not 
arise  in  them  from  great  inward  antagonisms  but  from 
external  collisions,  especially  from  the  conflict  of  pas- 
sion with  the  demands  of  prevailing  custom  and  the 
inertia  of  environment  in  which  these  two  forces  were 


IDEALIZING  DRAMA  57 

considered  legitimate  while  passion  per  se  already  meant 
guilt. 

Historical  and  legendary  subjects  were  still  by  far 
in  the  majority  and  most  of  the  writers  thought  they  had 
done  enough  when  they  seized  upon  some  traditional 
character  or  other,  striking  because  of  its  unusual  fate, 
divided  its  life  into  acts  and  scenes,  emphasized  strongly 
the  climaxes  of  the  course  of  events  and  conferred  upon 
the  hero  those  typical  qualities  by  which  his  fate  was 
humanly  to  be  explained.  The  particular  conditions 
of  time  and  place,  the  more  intimate  relations  of  things 
to  each  other,  all  psychology  that  lay  in  the  province 
of  the  unknown,  was  at  the  same  time  completely  neg- 
lected. In  spite  of  their  efforts  to  obtain  strong  out- 
ward effects,  these  dramatists  seldom  attained  to  even 
a  momentary  success  because  most  of  them  despised  the 
mechanical  rules  of  the  stage  or  were  unable  to  conjoin 
them  with  the  demands  of  an  idealizing  art.  Only  here 
and  there  could  a  greater  poetic  content  or  the  charm  of 
the  subject  delude  the  audience  into  overlooking  the  dra- 
matic faults.  To-day  the  most  of  these  dramas  have 
sunk  into  oblivion  or  still  eke  out  a  miserable  existence, 
thanks  only  to  a  reverence  which  is  scarcely  in  place. 

The  most  successful  author  of  this  group  was  Eligius 
Franz  Joseph  Freiherr  von  Miinch-Bellinghausen,  known 
by  the  pseudonym  FRIEDEICH  HALM.  His  very  first 
work,  Griseldis  (1834),  showed  an  author  who  was  master 
of  mechanical  expedients.  It  captured  every  stage  by 
its  romantic  subject,  melodious  language,  sentimental 
feeling  and  mawkish  mood-painting.  Among  his  nu- 
merous later  dramas  Der  Sohn  der  Wildnis  (1842)  had 
the  greatest  influence.  The  contrast  between  culture 
and  barbarism  which  Grillparzer  had  comprehended  in 


58  GERMAN  DRAMA 

its  depth  is  here  used  merely  to  celebrate,  in  the  barba- 
rian youth  Ingomar,  the  easy  victory  of  love  over  defiant 
manliness.  This  same  favorite  character  in  somewhat 
different  costumes  becomes  Thumelikus  of  the  Fechter 
von  Ravenna  (1854)  which  added  to  the  earlier  proper- 
ties of  Halm's  art,  as  approved  aids  to  a  shallow  success, 
the  hollow  pathos  of  a  cheap  patriotism  and  the  pungent 
description  of  moral  depravity.  In  the  dramatic  poem, 
Wildfeuer  (1863),  the  improbability  that  the  heroine 
had  been  brought  up  as  a  boy  and  remained  unknown  in 
this  role  almost  to  the  close  is  gladly  accepted  for  the 
benefit  of  the  piquant  effect  of  this  change  of  sex. 

Nevertheless  Halm's  plays  show  after  all  in  certain 
scenes  a  happy  invention;  his  language  is  often  trivial 
but  the  verse  is  clever  and  runs  well.  He  knows  how  to 
arouse  feeling  by  the  insertion  of  lyric  passages  and 
he  is  reckoned  among  the  few  representatives  of  Ger- 
man Art-drama  who  knew  the  stage  and  its  require- 
ments exactly. 

SOLOMON  HERMANN  HITTER  VON  MOSENTHAL,  who  like- 
wise lived  in  Vienna,  wras  the  surest  master  of  technique 
but  for  him  it  was  an  end  in  itself.  He  exerted  no  in- 
fluence in  historical  tragedy  but  in  his  pathetic  peasant- 
play,  Deborah  (1848),  he  produced  one  of  the  most 
popular  dramas  of  his  time.  The  great  conceptions  of 
tolerance  and  self-control  are  here  incorporated  into 
effective  scenes  and  touching  situations  and  the  role  of 
heroine  offered  actresses  for  a  long  time  a  welcome 
opportunity  to  show  all  their  arts. 

Besides  Halm  and  Mosenthal  many  an  aspiring  dram- 
atist of  this  period  ought  probably  to  be  mentioned, 
but  no  one  would  have  attained  great  and  lasting  suc- 
cess with  dramas  of  ideal  form.  Poetic  endowment  and 


IDEALIZING  DRAMA  59 

clear  recognition  of  the  problems  do  not  at  all  suffice 
to  make  good  the  lack  of  specific  dramatic  talent  and 
ability. 

The  virile  JULIUS  MOSEN  wished  to  look  at  history  as 
"a  struggle  between  opposing  principles,  in  which  the 
contending  spirits  purify  and  ennoble  each  other  and  so 
present  and  solve  in  the  drama  the  highest  problems  of 
man  here  below"  or  he  wished  "to  help  history  to  free 
consciousness  and  raise  it  in  its  ideals  as  the  ancients 
did  with  nature."  And  yet  he  was  not  able  to  trans- 
late these  purposes  into  a  work  that  would  live,  how- 
ever little  the  best,  Ileinrich  der  Finkler  (1836),  Her- 
zog  Bernhard  (1842)  and  Der  Sohn  des  Fiirsten  (1842), 
lacked  in  greatness  and  historical  judgment. 

In  the  numerous  dramas  of  RUDOLF  VON  GOTTSCHALL 
rhetorical  diction  is  the  most  prominent  characteristic. 
In  his  earlier  efforts  he  is  closely  allied  to  "Young 
Germany,"  when  in  Ulricli  von  Hutten  (1843)  and 
Robespierre  (1846),  with  great  expenditure  of  energy,  he 
pleads  the  cause  of  liberal  aspirations  and  the  rights  of 
sensuousness.  Later  this  tendency  vanishes  and  he  treats 
historical  subjects.  But  this  he  does  with  deficient  char- 
acterization and  a  strong  dependence  on  Shakespeare 
and  Schiller,  as  in  Mazeppa  (1855),  Katharina  Howard 
(1868),  Maria  de  Padilla  (1889),  Rdhdb  (1898),  Der 
Gotze  von  Venedig  (1901).  His  greatest  success  is 
the  comedy  written  on  the  model  of  Scribe,  Pitt  und  Fox 
(1854). 

JOSEPH  WEIL  VON  WEILEN  was  influenced  by  noble 
purposes  but  was  likewise  no  great  dramatist.  His 
talent,  which  was  rather  a  lyrical  one,  would  hardly 
have  drawn  him  to  historical  drama,  had  it  not  been 
that  in  the  judgment  of  that  day  in  it  alone  the  laurels 


60  GERMAN  DRAMA 

of  a  great  writer  were  to  be  won.  To  gain  these  he 
wrote  his  romantic  tragedies,  Tristan  (1860)  and  Dcr 
arme  Heinrich  (1860),  then  a  succession  of  works  in 
which  we  find  some  splendid  female  characters,  as  in 
Drahomira  (1867)  and  Rosamunde  (1869).  What- 
ever in  them  was  lacking  in  merit  and  truth  was  made 
good  to  the  spectators  by  the  plastic  power  of  the  great 
tragic  actress  of  Vienna,  Charlotte  Wolter.  Without 
this  same  assistance  the  finer  gifts  of  FRANZ  NISSEL, 
could  not  obtain  recognition  and  at  the  end  of  his  ca- 
reer he  looked  back  on  an  unusually  sad  and  wasted  life. 
With  all  his  noble  qualities  there  was  lacking  in  him 
and  his  works  the  power  to  succeed,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  public  attention  was  drawn  to  him  in  1878  when  he 
received  the  Schiller  prize  for  his  drama  Agnes  von 
Meran. 

Like  Halm  and  Nissel,  OSKAR  VON  REDWITZ  may  also 
be  reckoned  as  a  descendant  of  the  Romanticists,  only, 
however,  as  a  degenerate  one.  His  drama,  Philippine 
Welser  (1859),  was  often  acted  but  is  entirely  without 
character,  full  of  a  pretty  coquettish  emotional  dis- 
play. 

A  long  succession  of  other  writers  who  attained  to 
fame  and  honor  as  lyrists  and  epic  poets  were  but  sel- 
dom able  to  win  success  when  they  tried  the  stage; 
then  it  is  to  be  ascribed  to  their  poetic  talents  and  only 
too  often,  in  the  first  place,  to  their  name.  Otherwise 
they  were  entirely  without  influence  in  this  field. 

EMANUEL  GEIBEL,  the  most  popular  lyrist  of  this 
period,  wrote  the  tragedies,  Konig  Roderick  (1842)  and 
SopJwnisbe  (1868),  also  the  pleasant  comedy,  Meister 
Andrea  (1847),  but  only  his  Brunhild  (1861)  gained  a 
certain  popularity  because  the  great  figures  of  the 


IDEALIZING  DRAMA  61 

Nibelungen  were  toned  down  to  correspond  to  the  pre- 
vailing taste. 

A  similar  fate  in  drama  fell  to  the  lot  of  PAUL 
HEYSE.  In  the  long  succession  of  his  greater  plays  there 
are  only  two,  Hans  Lange  (1866)  and  Kolberg  (1868), 
which  attained  a  fair  popularity  on  the  stage.  Besides 
these  perhaps  Die  Gottin  der  Vernunft  (1870),  Don 
Juans  Ende  (1883),  Die  Weisheit  Salomos  (1886)  and 
Maria  von  Magdala  (1899)  are  worthy  of  mention,  the 
latter  because  of  the  political  agitation  called  forth  by 
the  censorship.  Closely  connected  with  his  main  field, 
the  short  story,  are  his  short  dramas  in  one  act,  of 
which  he  has  written  a  great  number,  all  of  them  pre- 
senting clearly  a  tragic  incident  but  without  real  dra- 
matic qualities.  Such  are  Unter  Briidern,  Ehrenschul- 
den  and  Im  Bunde  der  Dritte  (1886). 

With  a  short  comedy,  Durchs  Ohr  (1865),  WILHELM 
JORDAN,  the  author  of  Die  Nibelungen,  also  obtained,  at 
least  once,  recognition  as  a  dramatist  because  of  his 
charm  and  resonant  rhymed-verse.  Quite  unsuccessful 
were  the  attempts  of  Friedrich  Bodenstedt,  Hermann 
Lingg,  Count  Adolf  von  Schack,  Martin  Greif,  Robert 
Hamerling,  Otto  Roquette,  Friedrich  Spielhagen,  and 
Felix  Dahn,  so  that  we  can  spare  ourselves  mention  of 
any  particular  work. 


SUMMARY 

The  general  impression  of  German  dramatic  produc- 
tion and  of  the  German  stage  during  the  fifty-five  years 
from  1830-85  is  entirely  unsatisfactory.  All  forceful 
progressive  movements  seem  to  have  died  away;  the  old 
worn-out  fields  are  cultivated  with  ever-decreasing 
profit,  the  petrified  forms  resist  every  attempt  at  im- 
provement. The  cultivation  of  formal  beauty  is  the 
highest  aim.  Morality  is  repressed  in  favor  of  conven- 
tional middle-class  ethics.  Everything  reflecting  the 
spirit  of  the  age  is  carefully  avoided  by  upper-class 
writers  as  dangerous  and  hostile  to  art  while  some  op- 
position-natures give  vent  to  their  hatred  of  existing 
conditions  by  rude  and  formless  contempt  of  law  and 
morals. 

Middle-class  drama  both  of  the  more  serious  and  the 
brighter  kind  loses  the  worthy  character  which  class- 
consciousness  and  the  treatment  of  social  differences  had 
formerly  given  it  and  aims  only  at  providing  enter- 
tainment. The  fantastic  style  of  the  farce,  the  sound 
humor  of  the  folk-play,  degenerate  into  nasty  vulgarity 
and  stale  puns.  Actors  lose  serious  ambition  and  all 
desire  to  adapt  themselves  to  their  tasks.  "Stars"  mis- 
use the  great  works  of  the  classic  writers  as  the  sport  of 
their  surprising  tricks  and  destroy  co-operation  in  act- 
ing. Care  in  rehearsals  and  in  the  external  decoration 
of  the  scenes,  obedience  to  the  directions  of  the  author 
and  reverence  for  his  creation  are  lost  gradually  and 
entirely. 

And  yet  the  ideal  drama  had  a  more  numerous  and 
more  grateful  public  than  ever  before  or  since.  Tin- 
longing  for  freedom  grew  intoxicated  on  the  speeches  of 


FRIEDRICH  HEBBEL  63 

Posa  and  Tell,  the  desire  for  a  genuine  free  humanity 
got  satisfaction  in  Goethe's  characters,  and  pity  for  all 
oppressed  and  faith  in  an  adjustment  of  all  differences 
in  some  higher  state  was  satisfied  in  Lessing's  Nathan 
instead  of  in  life.  Schiller's  popularity  reached  its 
highest  point  in  this  period.  The  celebration  of  the 
hundredth  anniversary  of  his  birth  in  1859  was  made 
a  brilliant  festival  in  which  all  Germans  took  enthusias- 
tic part,  with  the  feeling  that  in  his  poetry  the  best 
which  filled  their  own  souls  had  been  uttered,  the  unful- 
filled longing  for  the  freedom,  unity  and  greatness  of 
the  Fatherland. 

When  a  succession  of  mighty  deeds  of  war  and  Bis- 
marck's genius  brought  these  thoughts  and  aspirations 
down  from  the  airy  kingdom  of  ideals  to  the  firm  ground 
of  reality,  then  was  lost  to  art  and  especially  to  the 
drama,  that  last  support  which  had  kept  it  from  sink- 
ing down  completely  into  a  cultivation  of  external  form 
and  low  epicureanism.  Therefore  the  years  from  1870- 
80  became  the  saddest  in  the  history  of  the  modern  Ger- 
man drama. 

FRIEDRICH  HEBBEL 

From  this  background  stands  out  the  brilliant  crea- 
tive work  of  FRIEDRICH  HEBBEL,  the  greatest  dramatist 
that  Germany  has  produced  since  the  days  of  the  classic 
writers.  And  he  became  such  while  struggling  on  with 
heart  of  steel  against  the  temporal  needs  of  life  and  at 
the  same  time  striving  to  gain  a  settled  philosophy  of 
the  world  and  art,  without  any  aid  but  his  belief  in 
himself  and  his  calling. 

A  descendant  of  a  sturdy  race  of  the  "  Dithmarsen, " 


64,  GERMAN  DRAMA 

he  saw  the  light  of  day  March  18,  1813,  at  Wesselburen 
in  Holstein  in  the  cramped  home  of  a  bricklayer.  His 
father,  by  nature  a  man  of  great  talents,  grew  bitter  in 
the  unceasing  struggle  for  the  necessities  of  life,  for 
"poverty  had  taken  the  place  of  his  soul."  All  the 
mortifications  which  lowliness  and  need  could  cause  a 
highminded  spirit  Friedrich  Hebbel's  early  developed 
pride  had  to  endure,  but  under  the  pressure  his  will- 
power grew  and  at  the  same  time  his  thought  and  power 
of  imagination  expanded.  From  his  fourteenth  year 
he  was  in  service  as  secretary  to  a  narrow-minded  man, 
the  parish  bailiff  Mohr  in  Wesselburen.  He  soon  grew 
intellectually  far  above  his  environment,  working  un- 
wearyingly  at  his  education,  reading  and  reflecting. 

He,  too,  grew  enthusiastic  at  first  over  the  lofty  dic- 
tion of  Schiller,  then  became  enchanted  with  the  shadowy 
figures  which  E.  T.  A.  Hoffmann  sketched  with  pecul- 
iarly realistic  touches,  and  at  last  through  Uhland's 
poem,  Des  Sangers  Fluch,  found  the  way  to  his  own  con- 
ception of  art.  Of  these  points  he  says  in  his  diary: 
"I  had  up  to  this  time  felt  very  comfortable  in  my 
strumming  in  imitation  of  Schiller  and  had  listened  to 
and  picked  up  many  a  doubt  from  the  philosopher  and 
many  a  rule  for  beauty  from  the  aesthete.  But  now 
Uhland  took  me  into  the  depths  of  a  human  heart  and 
thereby  into  the  depths  of  nature.  I  saw  how  he 
scorned  nothing  except  what  I  had  up  to  this  time  looked 
upon  as  the  greatest  thing — reflection.  I  saw  that  he 
understood  how  to  find  a  spiritual  bond  between  him- 
self and  all  things;  that  he,  removed  from  all  wilfulness 
and  prejudice — I  know  no  more  significant  word — knew 
how  to  trace  everything  back,  even  the  wondrous  and 
the  mystical,  to  the  simply  human ;  how  every  one  of 


FRIEDRICH  HEBBEL  65 

his  poems  had  its  peculiar  vital  point  and  yet  was  only 
to  be  completely  understood  and  estimated  by  looking 
back  over  the  whole  work  of  the  poet.  .  .  .  Not 
without  being  close  to  despair,  indeed  to  madness,  did 
I  gain  this  first  result,  that  the  poet  must  not  write 
into  nature  but  out  from  it.  It  is  not  to  be  estimated 
how  far  I  was  still  removed  from  the  conception  of  the 
first  and  only  law  of  art,  namely,  to  illustrate  the  in- 
finite from  the  individual  phenomenon." 

Hebbel's  villenage  had  lasted  for  eight  years  when 
the  authoress,  Amalie  Schoppe,  interested  herself  in 
him  and  made  it  possible  for  him  to  remove  to  Ham- 
burg. Here  he  was  now  to  supplement  the  defective 
education  of  his  youth,  but  instead  of  this  he  wrote 
in  his  diary  the  thoughts  which  poured  in  upon  him, 
his  impressions  of  people  and  the  results  of  his  self- 
observation.  At  the  head  he  set  these  words:  "I  am 
not  beginning  this  notebook  merely  to  please  my  future 
biographer,  although  with  my  prospects  of  immortality 
I  can  be  certain  that  I  will  find  one.  It  is  to  be  the 
music-book  of  my  heart  and  preserve  the  key  notes, 
which  my  heart  gives  forth,  faithfully  and  for  my 
edification  in  future  days." 

The  scanty  aid  of  his  patroness,  who  expected  as 
thanks  obedience  to  her  narrow-minded  advice,  aimed 
only  at  quick  bread-winning,  was  not  of  so  much  use 
to  Hebbel  as  the  devotion  of  the  faithful  Elise  Lensing, 
for  whom  no  sacrifice  was  too  great,  and  who  had  recog- 
nised his  greatness  long  before  the  world  knew  of  him. 
He  had  indeed  nothing  to  offer  her  but  friendship  and 
esteem  and  when  later  a  deep  and  genuine  love  took 
possession  of  him,  Elise  had  to  give  way.  Hebbel  was 
not  ungrateful  and  not  cruel  but  only  clear  and  firm 


66  GERMAN  DRAMA 

in  thought  and  feeling  in  spite  of  all  his  gentleness 
of  disposition.  Hand  in  hand  with  Elise  he  could  not 
have  reached  and  maintained  the  height  of  his  develop- 
ment. 

His  development  was  soon  so  far  advanced  that  he 
considered  it  his  life's  work  to  symbolize  his  inner  life 
as  far  as  it  was  fixed  in  important  instances  in  word 
and  figure.  This  self-description  meant  at  the  same 
time  something  higher  because  art  was  to  him  realized 
philosophy  as  the  world  was  realized  idea.  But  he  did 
not,  like  the  Classicists  and  Romanticists,  support  him- 
self by  a  fixed  and  final  conception  of  the  world  which 
solves  contradictions  by  an  appeal  to  a  higher  unity. 
He  declares  the  problematical  to  be  the  breath  of  life  to 
poetry  and  its  only  source,  that  for  it  anything  finished, 
perfect  and  dormant,  is  as  little  in  existence  as  the 
healthy  body  for  the  physician. 

Hebbel  sees  the  deep  plague  spots  of  the  day,  he 
feels  in  himself  the  feverish  ague  which  shakes  diseased 
society,  the  conflicts,  the  contradictions  of  life  for  which 
there  is  no  solution.  The  class  of  literature  in  which 
all  this  is  artistically  presented  is  for  him,  tragedy. 
It  has  to  do  with  what  is  incurable  and  unavoidable 
in  man's  fate  and,  because  he  is  so  conscious  of  its 
office,  he  is  zealous  against  unfruitful  coquetting  with 
the  beautiful  and  against  the  one-sidedness  of  the  drama, 
because  it  is  either  historical,  social  or  philosophical. 
In  his  plays  he  joins  all  three  divisions  to  make  a 
new  one  which  always,  even  when  portraying  the  past, 
reflects  the  present  and  its  struggles,  and  at  the  same 
time,  from  a  lofty  standpoint,  lightens  up  the  inner 
spirit  of  the  times. 

In   Hebbel   is   found  a  cool,   keen   intellect,   finding 


FRIEDRICH  HEBBEL  67 

satisfaction  in  a  dialectic  which  is  often  subtle,  a  glow- 
ing sensuousness  and  a  thorough  conception  of  reality 
combined  with  a  perfect  comprehension  of  causes  and 
a  clear  understanding  of  his  own  times,  its  problems  and 
needs  looked  at  from  the  point  of  view  of  universal 
history.  He  is  not  full  of  contradictions  but  of  a 
grand  many-sidedness,  the  consistency  of  which,  how- 
ever, cannot  be  perceived  offhand.  He  lacks  joy  in  the 
little  charms  of  life,  the  quiet  enjoyment  of  nature, 
the  blind  enthusiasm  of  youth  or  the  beautiful  and 
noble,  but  so  much  the  deeper  does  he  feel  true  great- 
ness and  with  really  dignified  contempt  does  he  score 
what  is  vulgar.  His  earlier  works*  lack  harmony,  be- 
cause he  did  not  find  it  in  himself  and  in  the  world 
and  because  he  was  too  proud  to  be  willing  to  delude 
himself  and  others  by  a  delusion  into  overlooking  what 
was  painful  and  hateful.  But  this  harmony  is  by  no 
means  equivalent  to  artistic  perfection,  as  many  sup- 
pose; if  one  considers  that  an  artist  is  great  because 
with  the  aid  of  great  ability  he  brings  a  deep,  inner 
content  clearly  to  view,  then  Hebbel  is  to  be  counted 
among  the  great  artists,  although  simplicity  of  feeling 
and  production  was  denied  him.  Only  too  often  does 
his  discussion  of  problems  cause  neglect  of  the  real 
purpose  of  the  drama,  viz:  to  present  scenes  full  of 
life  and  characters  that  are  humanly  significant. 

To  his  student  years  in  Heidelberg  and  Munich,  full 
of  poverty  and  wretchedness,  and  only  endurable  be- 
cause of  Elise  Lensing's  aid,  he  owes  less  increase  in 
knowledge  than  growth  and  maturity  of  heart  and 
mind.  Even  at  that  time  he  was  making  great  plans 
and  in  a  poem  written  on  a  later  visit  to  Munich,  the 
following  words  occur: 


68  GERMAN  DRAMA 

Hier   zeigte   wie   iin  Traume 
Sich  mir  die  Judith  schon, 
Dort  unterm  Tannenbaume 
Sah  ich  den  Tischlerssohn. 
Da  driiben  winkle  leise 
Mir  Genovevas  Hand, 
Und  in  des  Weihera  Kreise 
Fand  ich  den  Diamant. 

When  he  returned  to  Hamburg  in  1839,  he  wrote 
Judith,  the  first  of  the  works  referred  to  in  the  above 
lines.  Just  as  clearly  as  Goethe's  Gotz  von  Berlichingen 
or  Schiller's  Rduber  does  this  first  drama  of  Hebbel's 
also  bear  the  marks  of  exuberant  power,  too  glaring 
colors,  stormy  revolt  and  feverish  passion.  But  when 
we  look  into  its  contents  we  find  nothing  of  youthful 
vagueness  of  thought  or  of  artistic  purpose  and  at 
the  same  time  the  author  has  the  greatest  and  most 
unerring  command  of  form. 

Biblical  subjects  had  in  earlier  days  been  long  popu- 
lar on  the  French  and  German  stage.  The  Classicists 
and  Romanticists  had  turned  away  from  them  because 
the  field  seemed  to  have  been  exhausted  and  individual- 
ism thought  there  was  no  place  to  be  found  for  it  there. 
At  that  time  Gutzkow  had  just  tried,  in  a  drama 
Konig  Saul,  to  treat  a  biblical  incident  in  modern 
fashion  and  to  justify  it  psychologically.  But  his 
power  was  not  equal  to  the  task  and  when  Hebbel 
heard  the  play  praised  he  set  up  his  Judith  as  a  con- 
trast. In  the  biblical  narrative  belief  in  God,  which 
is  a  living  faith  in  Judith,  triumphs  over  the  heathen. 
Her  woman's  feelings  are  not  considered  in  what  she 
does,  nor  is  Holofernes,  her  opponent,  given  features 
which  surpass  those  typical  of  a  conqueror  and  tyrant. 
Here  Hebbel's  art  steps  in  to  supplement.  Holofernes 


FRIEDRICH  HEBBEL  69 

becomes  the  mighty  representative  of  unbroken  per- 
sonality, which,  as  a  power  with  equal  rights,  boldly 
opposes,  like  the  giants  of  old,  the  world-will,  i.  e.,  God. 
With  his  exaggerated  feeling  of  power,  the  expression 
of  which  sometimes  appears  grotesque,  Holofernes  is 
just  the  right  man  to  prove  by  his  fall  the  greatness 
of  God,  and  the  victory  of  eternal  law.  The  means 
which  God  employs  is  Judith.  To  become  his  instru- 
ment, she  must  possess  qualities  which  make  her  stand 
out  prominently  from  the  multitude  of  women. 

Judith  is  an  Oriental  woman  of  a  strongly  sensual 
nature,  endowed  with  great  spirit.  Among  her  faint- 
hearted fellow-countrymen  she  did  not  find  the  man 
she  longed  for.  She  had  been  married,  but  her  husband, 
early  deceased,  had,  with  inexplicable  timidity,  as  if 
in  the  presence  of  something  incomprehensible,  not 
ventured  to  touch  her.  Now  she  is  living  shut  up  in 
her  home  as  a  virgin  widow.  She  had  plunged  into 
the  eternal  One  as  one  plunges  into  deep  water,  that 
is,  she  drowns  the  thoughts  of  her  condition,  which  is 
an  enigma  to  herself,  in  an  unswerving  faith  in  the 
secret  will  of  God,  until,  through  Holofernes,  suffering 
comes  upon  the  country  and  her  own  city  is  besieged. 
She  hears  that  Holofernes  kills  women  by  kisses  and 
embraces,  just  as  he  does  men  by  spear  and  sword. 
Something  whispers  to  her:  "Had  he  known  that  you 
were  within  the  walls  of  the  city,  he  would  have  come 
for  your  sake  alone."  Judith  answers  with  a  sudden 
thought  which  betrays  her  desire  to  see  and  possess 
this  man.  "If  that  should  be  true  then  I  should  only 
need  to  go  out  to  him  and  my  city  and  land  would 
be  saved."  But  she  is  still  far  from  this  resolve. 
Only  when  the  suffering  of  the  city  had  become  very 


70  GERMAN  DRAMA 

great  and  no  aid  was  to  be  discovered,  does  she  feel 
certain  that  the  invisible  God  had  chosen  her  for  his 
instrument  to  save  his  people.  And  while  driven  out 
into  the  hostile  camp,  as  if  by  an  inward  force,  she 
believes  she  is  fulfilling  the  will  of  the  Highest,  but 
when  she  stands  in  the  presence  of  Holofernes  the 
woman  in  her  awakes;  what  was  driving  her  out  to  him 
was  unconscious  longing  for  the  man  himself.  In  vain 
she  prays:  "God  of  my  fathers,  protect  me  from  myself, 
that  I  be  not  compelled  to  honor  what  I  despise!  He 
is  a  man."  She  yields  to  him  and  when  her  desire 
is  satisfied,  she  becomes  conscious  that  she  has  been 
unfaithful  to  her  mission.  If  she  now  slays  Holofernes 
she  is  no  longer  the  instrument  of  God,  but  she  is 
avenging  on  him  her  own  desire  which  she  recognises 
as  sin.  A  selfish  wish  instead  of  religious  enthusiasm 
and  patriotism  had  led  her  into  his  arms  and  not  with 
rejoicing,  as  in  the  biblical  report,  but  as  a  broken 
sinner  she  goes  back  to  her  people,  trembling  with  the 
fear  that  she  will  bear  Holofernes  a  son  who  will  immor- 
talize her  crime.  But  Jehovah  is  the  victor.  He  has 
broken  the  mightiest  of  men :  he  has  also  destroyed  the 
woman  who  was  this  instrument.  His  power  alone 
remains  undiminished,  shown  to  be  stronger  than  ever. 
Somewhat  subtle  is  Hebbel's  motivation  of  Judith's 
deed  because  of  her  peculiar  condition  of  being  neither 
wife  nor  maiden.  At  the  same  time  her  relation  to 
Holofernes  is  to  represent  the  never-ending  conflict  of 
the  sexes  and  the  metaphysical  basis  of  this  relation. 
Both  figures  in  common  embody  the  nature  of  the  strong- 
willed  poet  with  passionate  desires.  The  social  instincts 
serve  as  a  background  and  stand  out  strikingly,  as  never 


FRIEDRICH  HEBBEL  71 

before  on  the  German  stage,  in  the  powerful  folk-scenes 
of  the  third  act. 

Everywhere  Hebbel's  chief  aim  is  that  which  he 
recognised  as  the  most  important  in  Shakespeare's  art, 
"to  disclose  the  roots  of  morality  in  life  in  the  grandest 
possible  manner  by  cutting  away  the  weeds  that  cover 
them  up."  Nowhere  is  it  his  object  in  his  works  to 
plead  the  cause  of  an  abstract  idea.  He  is  an  absolute 
Realist  although  the  form  keeps  clear  of  all  trivial 
reproduction  of  reality  and  his  language  indulges  in 
bold  metaphors.  Judith  may  be  called  the  first  modern 
drama  of  the  nineteenth  century  because  here  for  the 
first  time,  unconcerned  about  artistic  tradition,  the 
expression  of  the  peculiar  nature  of  the  present  is 
attempted  in  a  suitable  corresponding  dramatic  style. 

It  was  put  upon  the  stage  in  Berlin,  July  6,  1840,  a 
bold  venture,  and  at  one  stroke  Hebbel  became  known. 
The  critics,  with  all  their  objections,  had  after  all  to 
acknowledge  the  depth  of  thought,  the  loftiness  of 
artistic  purpose  and  the  astonishing  maturity  of  the 
young  author. 

After  a  somewhat  lengthy  pause  a  work,  which  had 
been  planned  earlier,  was  finished,  Genoveva  (1840- 
1841).  Once  more  he  chose  an  old,  well-known  subject 
which  he  tried  to  explain  by  human  motives.  For  a 
long  time  he  had  been  thinking  over  the  problem  which 
for  him  consisted  in  this,  that  a  noble,  yielding,  inno- 
cent, youthful  nature  because  of  sensual  love  to  a  trans- 
figured saint  falls  a  victim  to  criminal  madness.  That 
is  the  misfortune,  the  guilt  and  the  justification  of 
Golo,  the  real  hero  of  this  tragedy.  Genoveva,  on  the 
other  hand,  steps  into  the  background  and  remains  in- 


72  GERMAN  DRAMA 

wardly  unaffected  by  all  that  befalls  her.  The  most 
guilty  is  the  husband  who  believes  in  her  infidelity 
upon  mere  circumstantial  evidence,  because  according 
to  Hebbel  it  is  far  more  sinful  not  to  suspect  the 
divine  in  our  neighborhood,  and  without  further  investi- 
gation to  take  it  for  its  black  adversary,  than  to  de- 
molish it  in  world-destroying  madness  because  we  can 
not  possess  it. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  Hebbel's  work  is  superior 
by  far  in  genuine  poetic  merit  to  the  works  of  the 
same  name  by  Maler  Miiller  and  Ludwig  Tieck  (vide 
p.  10)  yet  he  could  not  after  all  remove  the  fundamental 
weakness  which  lay  in  the  legend,  the  preponderance 
of  the  epic  and  lyric,  although  he  did  with  firm  hand 
strengthen  the  plot  in  the  earlier  acts.  In  his  work, 
too,  the  miraculous  and  the  reflective  gain  too  great 
an  influence,  and  again  the  manner  of  treatment  and 
the  motivation  of  the  chief  characters  is  too  subtle. 
Hebbel  could  not  use  the  reconciliation  which  comes 
at  the  close  of  the  old  legend  if  he  was  to  be  true  to 
his  belief  in  the  incurable  nature  of  the  world's  woe. 
And  yet  to  comply  with  the  demand  for  it  he  wrote 
an  epilogue  in  1851,  in  which  the  forgiveness  of  all 
wrongdoing  is  brought  about  by  the  husband  volun- 
tarily offering  to  take  upon  himself  all  Genoveva's  suf- 
ferings due  to  him,  and  by  Genoveva  forgiving  Golo, 
her  accuser,  in  the  words  of  the  Lord's  Prayer.  In  the 
unhappy  Golo  Hebbel  has  revealed  his  own  thoughts  in 
the  period  of  their  development  and  in  their  antitheses ; 
in  this  character  therefore  is  the  best  key  to  an  acquain- 
tance with  the  young  poet. 

The  whole  drama  reveals  his  view  of  the  world  with 
the  same  power  and  with  still  stronger  proofs  than 


FRIEDRICH  HEBBEL  73 

Judith.  Everything  that  happens  is  only  from  our 
standpoint  good  or  bad,  everything  originates  with  the 
world-will  which  rests  in  God  and  the  business  of  the 
poet  is  to  reproduce  in  his  work  of  art,  in  a  clear  and 
comprehensible  manner,  the  working  of  this  will  back  of 
life  which  represents  it  veiled  and  unconsciously.  In 
order  to  be  able  to  do  this  he  must  dive  down  deep 
in  the  abyss  of  personality  to  discover  the  first  motives 
for  the  acts,  which  have  their  root  in  the  soil  of  the 
eternal  interdependence  of  all  things.  In  this  connec- 
tion Genoveva  with  all  its  dramatic  faults  is  very  sig- 
nificant. 

In  the  prologue  to  the  comedy,  Der  Diamant,  which 
was  finished  immediately  after  Genoveva  (1841),  it  is 
said  by  the  poet: 

Er  ist  in  die  bewegte  Welt 
Als  fester  Mittelpunkt  gestellt, 
Der,  unberlihrt  von  Ebb'  und  Flut, 
In  sich  gesattigt,  schweigend  ruht, 
Weil  er  in  sich  jedweden  Kreis 
Begonnen  und  beschlossen  weiss, 
Und  weil  in  ihm  der  Urgeist  still 
Die  Perl',  sein  Abbild,  zeugen  will, 
Das,  wenn  es  in  die  Zeitlichkeit 
Hinaustritt,  jeden  Riss  der  Zeit, 
Schon   dadurch   heilt,   dass   sie   erkennt, 
Was  sie  vom  ew'gen  Wesen  trennt. 

His  purpose  to  give,  in  a  cheerful  light,  a  picture  of 
the  working  of  the  original  spirit  did  not,  however, 
succeed.  Here,  too,  it  was  not  a  question  with  Hebbel 
of  individual  phenomena  but  of  the  connection  of 
trifling,  seemingly  unimportant  and  ridiculous  incidents 
with  the  eternal  conditions  of  existence.  Through  the 
diamond  is  to  be  revealed  the  innermost  nature  of  all 


74  GERMAN  DRAMA 

who  struggle  for  its  possession.  But  especially  the 
scenes  which  take  place  at  a  fanciful  court  are  lifeless 
and  contrast  too  strongly  with  the  rough  comic  of  the 
rest,  the  nature  of  which  corresponds  to  the  highest 
conception  of  what  is  comical  and  yet  is  not  easily  and 
directly  comprehensible. 

When  Hebbel  sought  aid  in  Kopenhagen  from  the 
King  of  Denmark,  his  sovereign,  a  handsome  travelling 
scholarship  was  granted  him  for  two  years.  Even  be- 
fore he  left  his  home-land  the  greater  portion  of  that 
tragedy  had  been  written  which  of  all  his  works  was 
best  to  reflect  national  character,  Maria  Magdalena. 
It  was  finally  finished  in  Paris  and  appeared  in  1844 
with  its  important  preface  on  the  relation  of  dramatic 
art  to  the  times.  It  is  based  on  incidents  which  Hebbel 
saw  in  Munich  when  he  was  living  with  a  cabinet- 
maker who,  like  his  hero,  was  called  Anton.  "I  saw 
how  all  the  members  of  this  worthy  middle-class  family 
grew  gloomy  when  the  gendarmes  led  away  the  foolish 
son.  I  was  deeply  moved  when  I  saw  the  daughter, 
who  waited  upon  me,  really  breathe  freely  again  when 
I  joked  and  fooled  with  her  in  the  old  fashion."  Heb- 
bel had  become  the  confidant  of  this  daughter;  from 
her  confessions  Clara's  story  took  its  origin.  The 
fate  of  the  unhappy,  deserted  sweetheart  had  often  been 
made  use  of  for  dramatic  effect  even  before  Goethe 
wrote  his  Gretchen-tragedy,  but  mostly  from  the  stand- 
point that  the  seducer  belonged  to  the  nobility,  the 
fallen  girl  of  the  middle  classes,  and  that  fear  of  a 
rough  honorable  father  drove  her  to  child-murder  or 
to  suicide.  The  difference  in  rank  does  not  exist  in 
Hebbel 's  play.  It  is  no  longer  the  oppressed  citizen 
of  the  eighteenth  century  but  the  middle-class  of  the 


FRIEDRICH  HEBBEL  75 

nineteenth  which  esteems  itself  the  real  representative 
of  the  people.  But  only  so  much  the  narrower  is  the 
constraint  of  life  which  destroys  all  free  judgment 
and  all  free  conduct  because  their  social  position  and 
self-respect  is  based  upon  traditional  ideas  of  honor 
and  right  and  not  upon  a  view  of  morals  arrived  at 
independently.  Hebbel  had  already  written  in  his 
diary  at  Munich:  "There  is  no  worse  tyrant  than  the 
common  man  in  his  family  circle."  He  had  learned 
that  in  his  own  youth,  so  many  of  the  impressions 
of  which  had  gone  into  the  Maria  Magdalena,  and  he 
now  copied  it  with  its  most  striking  characteristics  into 
the  figure  of  the  cabinet-maker  Anton.  In  this  drama 
everything  is  unconditional  necessity.  The  character 
of  the  people  is  entirely  conditioned  by  the  class  to 
which  they  belong;  for  them  this  means  fate,  and  the 
ethical  point  of  view  peculiar  to  this  class  suffers  no 
opposition  from  any  individual.  No  one  is  capable  of 
venturing  an  independent  judgment  of  the  world  that 
closes  him  in;  it  decides  as  to  fortune  and  misfortune, 
life  and  death,  and  from  this  comes  the  depressing 
feeling  left  by  this  great  work  of  art. 

It  is  not  a  question  here  of  a  struggle  between  equal 
opponents,  but  the  whole  of  middle-class  society  goes 
to  smash  from  within  before  the  eyes  of  the  spectators 
without  any  new  or  better  substitute  showing  itself 
in  the  background.  To  uphold  middle-class  respecta- 
bility at  all  costs  is  the  main  point  just  as  in  the  older 
middle-class  drama,  but  while  this  latter  shows  only 
the  advantageous  exterior  of  a  society  supported  by 
firm  principles,  Hebbel  lights  up  the  interior  and  proves 
how  much  that  is  humanly  valuable  is  destroyed  for 
the  sake  of  appearance  and  how  rotten  the  pillars  of 


76  GERMAN  DRAMA 

this  society  really   are.     The  unfortunate   Clara,   who 
was  originally  to  give  the  name  to  the  play,  is  a  victim 
of   the   class   whose   views   mean   for   her  the   eternal 
cosmic  system.     When  she  believes  herself  deserted  by 
the  lover  of  her  youth  she  becomes   the  loveless  be- 
trothed of   Treasurer  Leonhard  merely  to  escape  de- 
rision and  to  stifle  in  her  own  heart  her  love  for  the 
supposedly  faithless  one.     Her  lover  returns  and  keeps 
away  from  her  because  of  her  engagement.     She  yields 
herself  to  her  betrothed  because  he  demands  this  proof 
of  her  affection  and,  according  to  the  views  of  their 
class,   this  cannot  be   considered  a  grievous  sin   with 
engaged  couples.     "If  she  is  going  to  become  my  wife 
then   she  knows  that  she   is  risking  nothing."     Then 
all  is  suddenly  changed  because  of  a  supposed  theft 
by  her  brother,  which  covers  Clara's  family  with  shame 
and  causes  the  loss  of  her  small  dowry.     The  Treasurer 
cancels  the  engagement,   especially  when   an   advanta- 
geous union  with  the  ugly  niece  of  the  mayor  offers  itself 
and   Clara's   prayers   cannot   bring   him   back   to   her. 
Even  the  lover  is  completely  steeped  in  class-prejudice 
and  says  when  he  hears  of  Clara's  trouble:  "Nobody 
can  get  over  that!     To  be  obliged  to  lower  her  eyes 
in  the  presence  of  the  fellow  in  whose  face  one  would 
like  to  spit?     ...     Or  one  would  have  to  put  the 
dog  who  knows  it  out  of  the  way  by  shooting ! ' '     Clara 
had   sworn    to   the    father  that   she   would   not   bring 
disgrace  upon  him   and  therefore  goes  voluntarily  to 
death.     But  even  this  sacrifice  is  made  in  vain,  for  her 
purpose  of  avoiding  the  suspicion  of  suicide  is  unsuc- 
cessful.    Thus   everything   works   together   to    destroy 
her  and  the  father  whose  sole  life-purpose  is  the  preser- 
vation of  a  stainless  reputation.     In  the  closing  words 


FRIEDRICH  HEBBEL  77 

of  Master  Anton,  "Ich  verstehe  die  Welt  nicht  mehr," 
middle-class  ethical  standards  proclaim  their  bank- 
ruptcy; they  fall  in  ruins  before  our  eyes. 

With  Maria  Magdalena  begins  the  social  drama  of 
the  present  day.  No  longer  is  the  contrast  of  classes 
brought  before  us  in  passionate  conflicts  but  society 
is  described  and  its  defects  revealed.  Therefore  the 
delineation  of  conditions  becomes  more  important  than 
the  plot  and  a  new  technique  is  the  result.  Only  the 
last  stages  of  a  course  of  destiny  are  shown ;  these  are 
just  as  much  settled  by  general  conditions  as  by  the 
peculiarities  of  the  people  concerned  and  from  this 
the  necessity  of  all  preceding  incidents  is  analytically 
deduced. 

The  principal  difficulty  with  this  technique  consists 
in  making  known  without  omissions  the  necessary  as- 
sumptions in  the  course  of  the  plot  and  yet  dovetail- 
ing them  without  effort  into  the  dialogue  in  such  a 
way  that  the  interest  of  the  spectators  is  retained  to 
the  close  and  the  action  advances  continuously.  Be- 
cause of  these  peculiar  conditions,  the  modern  society- 
drama  is  akin  to  Greek  tragedy  in  its  construction  and 
in  its  portrayal  of  typical  characters  but  with  the  reser- 
vation that,  conformably  to  the  complicated  conditions 
of  the  present,  the  personages  are  no  such  simple  crea- 
tions as  those  which  the  Greek  writers  present.  The 
general  impression  derived  from  both  classes  is  one  of 
fate.  But  while  in  the  Greek  the  justice  of  the  course 
of  the  world  is  proven,  here  the  final  result  is  a  depress- 
ing conviction  of  the  unconditional  and  unfailing  effect 
of  social  and  natural  laws  by  which  freedom  of  action 
seems  done  away  with. 

The  representatives  of  ' '  Young  Germany ' '  had  already 


78  GERMAN  DRAMA 

aimed  at  such  a  drama  theoretically.  Hebbel  came  in- 
dependently to  similar  requirements,  supported  far 
more  strongly  by  thought  and  experience.  He  satisfied 
them  in  his  Maria  Magdalena  more  completely  than 
his  predecessors  and  with  the  same  devices  as  his  most 
important  successor,  Ibsen.  In  the  society-dramas  of 
his  middle  period  the  latter  stands  entirely  on  the 
shoulders  of  Hebbel. 

Thus  Maria  Magdalena  is  the  cornerstone  of  the  new 
dramatic  art  but  at  the  same  time  in  another  respect 
the  conclusion  of  the  old.  In  the  magnificent  figure 
of  Master  Anton,  hewn  as  it  were  from  granite,  we 
see  the  descendant  of  music-master  Miller  in  Schiller's 
Kabale  und  Liebe.  He  lacks,  however,  the  joyful  self- 
confidence,  the  fighting  spirit  and  the  rude  cheeriness 
of  his  ancestors.  The  quills,  which  the  middle-class 
citizen  in  the  early  days  of  that  class  wore  on  the 
outside,  have  been  turned  inwards;  he  does  not  venture 
to  struggle,  he  thinks  nothing  at  all  about  people, 
nothing  bad,  nothing  good,  and  only  in  his  sense  of 
middle-class  honor  does  he  see  the  standard  which  he 
applies  to  all  things.  With  his  great  heroic  spirit  he 
is  held  fast  in  a  narrow  circle  of  thought  and  clings 
to  the  belief  that  the  existing  cosmic  order  is  just  and 
complete.  If  this  belief  goes  to  pieces,  then  he  too,  and 
his  class,  must  be  ruined.  That  is  proven  in  the 
younger  generation  which  grows  up  beside  him  light- 
hearted  and  assertive. 

To  him  who  looks  deeper  there  are  revealed  in  Maria 
Magdalena  the  causes  of  the  convulsions  which  society 
has  witnessed  since  1840,  except  that  here  that  influence 
is  not  yet  visible  which  was  gained  soon  afterwards 
by  the  new  social  forces  which  came  into  being  because 


FRIEDRICH  HEBBEL  79 

of  the  development  of  industry.  No  longer  the  upper 
classes,  but  the  organised  masses  of  workmen,  demand- 
ing equality,  are  now  the  opponents  with  which  the 
middle  classes  have  to  contend.  The  outlook  opens 
upon  a  new  middle-class  drama  which  now  does  not 
picture  a  condition  of  rest  but  the  passionate  struggles 
of  two  mighty  opponents.  To  find  for  this  just  as 
complete  an  expression  on  the  stage  as  Maria  Magdalena 
gives  of  the  self-destruction  of  the  middle  class  is  re- 
served as  one  of  the  greatest  artistic  problems  for  the 
twentieth  century. 

Hebbel's  criticism  of  society  is  continued  in  the  two 
dramatic  works  which  had  their  source  in  his  impres- 
sions of  travel.  In  Paris  he  took  delight  in  the  larger 
bustling  life  going  on  all  around  him.  He  had,  it  is 
true,  been  born  and  had  grown  up  in  a  small  place 
but  was  by  nature  and  inclination  a  metropolitan  who 
would  feel  permanently  comfortable  only  in  the  full 
stream  of  busy  public  life.  Then  when  he  went  to  Rome, 
the  ruins  which  formerly  had  spoken  so  eloquent  a 
language  to  Goethe  could  only  speak  to  him  of  van- 
ished greatness.  The  deep  moral  degradation  and  the 
wretched  government  of  the  city,  as  well  as  in  the 
neighboring  kingdom  of  Naples,  where  he  stayed  later, 
confirmed  his  view  of  the  incurable  nature  of  the  world's 
conditions  and  again  he  sought  to  give  pictures  of  the 
present,  in  which  they  should  be  delineated. 

In  November,  1845,  he  found  a  second  home  in 
Vienna,  where  he  had  been  detained  by  an  accident. 
It  was  a  year  later  before  there  stirred  in  him  again 
the  impulse  to  create  and  he  wrote  the  two  dramas  of 
the  present,  whose  scene  of  action  is  laid  in  Italy;  the 
tragi-comedy,  Ein  Trauerspiel  in  Sizilien,  and  the  trag- 


80  GERMAN  DRAMA 

edy,  Julia.  Both  are  taken  from  the  sphere  of  the 
disgusting,  of  the  simply  horrible  which  Ilebbel  thinks 
is  the  result  of  modern  conditions.  In  the  first  the 
fundamental  element  of  humor  is  to  so  combine  the  hor- 
rible with  the  bizarre  that  the  one  as  well  as  the 
other  will  only  have  a  moderated  effect.  The  fearful 
appears  in  the  lowest  form  because  in  the  play  the 
obsolete  police-governed  state  is  fate,  and  at  the  same 
time  the  contrasts  of  economic  inequality  represent  the 
fearful  danger  of  an  unevenly  increasing  wealth.  The 
effect  of  this  mixture  of  the  horrible  and  the  comic 
can  not  but  be  disagreeable. 

The  very  same  is  true  of  Julia,  which  likewise  is 
intended  to  reflect  Italian  conditions  before  1848.  The 
heroine  finds  herself  in  the  same  condition  as  Clara  in 
Hebbel's  middle-class  tragedy;  her  father,  like  Master 
Anton,  considers  himself  a  just  man  but  the  solution 
of  the  problem  is  complicated  because  other  factors 
play  a  part.  The  note  of  responsibility  to  the  coming 
generation  is  already  struck  in  the  play  when  Count 
Bertram,  shattered  in  health  by  excesses,  declares  that 
marriage  between  "life"  and  "death,"  between  healthy 
youth  and  worn-out  debility,  is  the  "mother  of  ghosts." 
Thus  there  sounds  in  our  ears  not  only  the  subject  but 
even,  accidentally,  the  title  of  one  of  the  most  sig- 
nificant of  Ibsen's  works. 

Artistic  command  of  his  material,  clearness  and  cer- 
tainty in  grasping  reality  here  fail  the  author  and 
therefore,  in  spite  of  the  historic  importance  which 
Julia  plainly  possesses,  in  spite  of  the  scenes  of  inimita- 
ble grandeur  and  beauty,  justly  praised  by  Otto  Lud- 
wig,  the  work  after  all  must  likewise  be  considered 
a  failure. 


FRIEDRICH  HEBBEL  81 

The  bitter  despair  voiced  in  it  is  an  echo  of  Hebbel's 
youth.  When  he  wrote  the  Trauerspiel  in  Sizilien  and 
Julia  (1846)  the  pressure  of  poverty  had  been  taken 
from  him,  he  had  found  in  Vienna  a  second  home,  and 
in  the  noble  actress  Christine  Enghaus  a  life  companion 
such  as  he  needed.  No  unconquerable  passion  had  led 
him  to  her  because,  as  he  said,  the  whole  man  in  him 
belonged  to  poetry,  to  that  power  which  to  him  was 
the  most  important,  for  out  of  it  alone  springs  his 
own  happiness  and  the  advantage  which  the  world  can 
derive  from  him. 

What  new  works  he  wrote  from  now  on  were  not 
to  embody  eternal  contrasts  in  that  accidental  form 
which  the  circumstances  of  his  own  time  gave  them. 
He  chose  by  preference  the  turning-points  of  history 
where  these  contrasts,  represented  by  two  ages  and 
their  points  of  view,  had  come  together  in  mightiest 
collision.  This  was  the  origin  of  the  great  works  of 
his  last  period,  at  their  head  Herodes  und  Mariamne 
(1847-48).  Herod,  whom  fate  has  placed  at  that 
point  of  historic  development  where  the  heathen-Jewish 
and  the  dawning  Christian  world  are  both  visible  at 
the  same  time,  sees  in  his  wife,  in  agreement  with  the 
old  passing  view-point,  merely  a  costly  possession ;  she, 
however,  loves  him  with  a  different,  to  him  new  and 
incomprehensible  love,  which  seeks  its  happiness  in 
sacrifice.  This  is  the  source  of  the  conflict  in  this 
thoughtful  drama  and  it  is  made  greater  by  the  general 
conditions  of  the  time  and  by  those  peculiar  to  the 
Jewish  tetrarch  dependent  upon  Home.  In  him  pulses 
in  feverish  excitement  the  blood  of  his  great  forefathers 
and  upon  him  weighs  the  curse  of  the  old  egoistic  ethics 
and  of  the  heart-loneliness  springing  therefrom.  He- 


82  GERMAN  DRAMA 

rodcs  wnd  Mariamne  became  a  universal  drama  in  the 
highest  sense.  Hebbel  did  not  aim  at  describing 
' '  Jealousy,  monster  of  frightful  mien, ' '  as  Calderon  had 
done  before  with  the  same  subject;  on  the  contrary, 
his  very  successful  purpose  was  to  make  the  historic 
anecdote  the  expression  of  necessary  human  conduct. 
Mariamne  is  beheaded,  but  that  which  was  in  her  lives 
on  and,  when  Herod  immediately  afterwards  gives  com- 
mand for  the  murder  at  Bethlehem  in  order  to  destroy 
the  Messiah  of  this  new  world,  his  blind  rage  cannot 
stay  its  victory. 

In  this  tragedy  Hebbel  has  clearly  striven  for  that 
pure  beauty  of  form  which  graces  the  works  of  Schiller 
and  Goethe,  but  he  does  so  without  giving  up  anything 
of  his  own  peculiar  nature.  He  now  dispenses  with  any 
display  of  mere  force,  any  subtle  dialectic,  any  emphasis 
upon  what  is  striking  and  strange  in  the  characters 
and  if  apparently  anything  of  the  kind  is  still  left  in 
them,  then  the  impression  arises  only  from  the  fact 
that  Hebbel  penetrates  deeper  than  earlier  dramatists 
into  the  mysterious  origin  of  personality  and  discovers 
features  there  which  at  first  sight  strike  one  as  irregular 
and  wilful. 

Full  of  great  significance  are  also  the  two  dramas, 
seemingly  dashed  off  with  easy  touch,  Der  Rubin  (1849) 
and  Michel  Angela  (1850).  Dcr  Rubin  conceals  under 
the  cloak  of  an  Eastern  fairy-story  so  much  deep 
thought  that  it  can  scarcely  be  interpreted  fully  and, 
especially  to  the  superficial  Viennese  public,  was  just  as 
little  comprehensible  as  Grillparzer's  kindred  comedy, 
Weh'  dem,  der  liigt.  The  rights  of  the  more  highly 
gifted  as  compared  with  the  mass  and  the  excuse  for  the 
assumptions  of  the  lesser  sort  is  the  subject  of  Michel 


FRIEDRICH  HEBBEL  83 

Aiujclo.  The  play  is  an  artist's  merry  anecdote  "of 
cerulean  hue"  which  with  the  greatest  sense  of  justice 
does  not  deny  self-consciousness,  and  is  indispensable 
for  the  full  understanding  of  Hebbel,  however  little 
its  merit  as  a  work  of  art  may  be  in  comparison  with 
his  other  plays. 

Hebbel  has  also  accepted  the  right  of  the  whole,  as 
contrasted  with  the  individual,  as  existing  uncondition- 
ally for  the  freest  of  the  sons  of  earth,  the  artist.  He 
defined  more  generally  the  value  of  eminent  people 
in  the  most  beautiful  of  his  tragedies,  Agnes  Bernauer 
( 1851 ) ,  in  which  beauty  in  itself  means  tragedy.  Agnes 
Bernauer 's  beauty  is  in  a  way  a  privilege  which  the 
individual  assumes  over  against  the  whole;  it  kindles 
the  most  violent  passions  and  in  its  innocency  causes 
greater  harm  than  the  blackest  sinner  can  accomplish. 

Hebbel  himself  has  thus  characterized  the  idea  of  this 
drama:  "In  it  is  expressed  quite  simply  the  relation 
of  the  individual  to  society.  Accordingly  it  is  illus- 
trated by  two  characters,  of  whom  the  one  belongs  to 
the  highest  classes  and  the  others  to  the  lowest,  that 
the  individual,  however  grand  and  great,  noble  and 
beautiful  he  may  be,  must  yield  to  society  under  all 
circumstances,  because  in  it  and  in  its  necessary  formal 
expression,  the  state,  all  human  natures  lives,  in  the 
individual,  however,  only  the  single  phase  comes  to 
development.  That  is  the  stern  bitter  lesson  for  which 
I  expect  no  thanks  from  the  shallow  democracy  of 
our  times,  but  it  runs  through  all  history  and  whoever 
cares  to  study  my  earlier  dramas  in  their  sum  total, 
instead  of  conveniently  stopping  with  individual  ones, 
will  find  that  it  has  already  been  proclaimed  even  there 
as  far  as  each  separate  sphere  permitted." 


84  GERMAN  DRAMA 

As  in  the  case  of  the  other  subjects  which  had  already 
been  treated  before  Hebbel's  time,  he  is  in  these  also 
completely  distinguished  from  his  predecessors  by  his 
point  of  view,  not  because  of  a  striving  after  originality 
but  because  he  knows  how  to  go  deeper  into  the  nature 
of  things. 

All  former  writers  had  glorified  Agnes  Bernauer,  the 
unfortunate  and  beautiful  barber's  daughter  of  Augs- 
burg, as  a  martyr,  and  pictured  her  murder  as  an  act 
of  revenge,  of  patriotism  or  of  cruel  class-pride.  Heb- 
bel  proves  the  necessity  of  her  death  for  the  sake  of 
higher  interests.  He  shows  that  Duke  Ernest,  who 
has  her  killed,  sacrifices  his  feelings  as  a  man  for  the 
good  of  the  state  and  that  the  tragic  note  of  heroic 
renunciation  is  inherent  in  his  genuine  greatness.  He 
shows  further  that  the  son  who  puts  the  possession 
of  the  sweetheart  above  everything  else  must  first  be 
trained  for  the  ruler's  office  to  which  he  is  born.  Sim- 
ilarly Agnes'  death  means  for  her  husband  the  victory 
of  the  sense  of  duty  over  selfish,  sensual  desires,  as 
does  the  death  of  the  Judin  von  Toledo  for  the  king 
in  Grillparzer's  drama.  Agnes  falls  a  victim,  without 
protection  and  without  a  struggle,  and  her  death,  which 
does  not  mark  the  close  but  the  central  point  of  the 
tragedy,  cannot  impair  the  great  and  uplifting  effect  of 
the  whole.  In  this  Agnes  Bernauer  is  most  clearly  dis- 
tinguished from  Maria  Magdalena,  which  stands  next 
to  it  in  other  respects  because  of  its  well-knit,  compact 
construction,  its  wealth  of  individual  features  and  the 
compelling  logic  of  the  motivation.  The  language  is 
smoother  than  in  the  early  work,  and  happily  colored  by 
the  slightly  archaic  touch  of  the  time  of  the  action. 

For  the  comprehension  of  a  woman's  feelings  in  their 


FRIEDRICH  HEBBEL  85 

deepest  depths  Agnes  is  as  little  adapted  as  any  of 
Hebbel's  earlier  woman-characters,  because  in  them  all 
special  conditions  of  personality  permit  what  is  gener- 
ally legitimate  for  their  sex  only  to  shine  as  it  were 
through  a  mist.  Gyges  und  sein  Ring  (1854)  delineates 
a  woman  who,  completely  cut  off  from  the  world,  with- 
out any  disturbing  influence  from  outside,  develops  one- 
sidedly  in  the  specifically  female  direction.  Her  ex- 
aggerated feeling  of  modesty  feels  even  the  glance  of 
a  stranger  as  a  stain  which  she  must  remove  at  all 
costs.  Perhaps  purity  is  here  exaggerated  to  a  paradox 
but  everything  develops  logically  from  this  feeling  which 
has  complete  mastery  over  Rhodope.  She  says  to  her- 
self: "Only  my  husband  may  see  my  face;  therefore 
he  who  has  seen  it  must  become  my  husband  and  there- 
fore must  first  murder  my  earlier  husband.  But  I 
cannot  possibly  live  in  marriage  bonds  with  the  mur- 
derer," and  she  stabs  herself  before  the  altar  after 
the  outrage  to  her  feeling  of  purity  is  atoned  for  by 
her  marriage  with  Gyges.  Kandaules,  the  husband,  is 
not  merely  a  boaster  as  in  the  legend  told  by  Herod- 
otus. Hebbel  deduces  his  conduct  from  the  deepest 
motives  of  his  nature.  As  the  descendant  of  a  great 
family,  as  the  last  of  the  Heraclides  he  aims  at  intro- 
ducing a  new  era  for  his  people.  He  lacks  reverence 
for  traditional  custom,  for  the  historical  as  well  as  the 
enlightened,  the  liberal.  He  depreciates  the  old  values 
without  being  able  to  put  new  ones  in  their  place. 

Hebbel  thought  that  he  had  here  found  the  point 
of  intersection  in  which  the  ancient  and  the  modern 
atmosphere  pass  over  into  one  another.  He  supposed 
he  had  solved  in  a  general  human  fashion,  comprehensi- 
ble for  all  times,  a  problem  such  as  could  only  have 


86  GERMAN  DRAMA 

originated  in  that  legendary  period.  He  did  not  intend 
to  give  the  drama  any  particular  idea  as  a  background 
but  to  his  greatest  surprise,  after  its  completion,  there 
suddenly  issues  out  of  it,  like  an  island  out  of  the 
ocean,  the  idea  of  custom  as  that  which  conditions  and 
binds  everything  together. 

In  this  in  reality  lies  an  aid  to  the  full  understand- 
ing of  the  strange  work.  We  find  another  in  the  com- 
parison of  Rhodope  with  the  figure  of  Nora,  seemingly 
so  very  different  from  her,  in  Ibsen's  Doll's  House, 
of  whom  one  is  already  reminded  by  Hebbel's  M<iri- 
amne.  Here  as  there  the  slumbering,  dreamy  soul  of  a 
wife  who  accepts  life  as  something  to  be  taken  for 
granted  wakes  up  to  independent  activity  and  experi- 
ence. Here  as  there  the  husband  believes  that  in  her 
he  has  a  possession  with  which  he  may  do  as  he  likes 
and  has  to  make  grievous  atonement  for  his  error.  In 
both  dramas  the  right  of  the  wife  to  respect  for  her 
peculiar  nature  is  maintained  and  finally  gains  the 
victory.  But  while  with  Ibsen  all  lines  come  out  sharply 
in  the  clear  cold  light  of  reality,  Ilebbel  envelops  his 
figures  in  the  faint  light  of  the  mystical.  Gyges'  ring, 
which  is  superfluous  for  the  real  purpose  of  the  author, 
fulfils  the  object  of  awakening  the  feeling  of  the  mys- 
terious associations  of  nature,  of  the  riddle  in  its  phe- 
nomena which  is  not  to  be  solved  by  reason.  Hebbel 
thought  of  putting  the  drama  on  the  French  stage  and 
certainly  he  was  right  in  his  statement  that  in  outward 
form  it  was  as  nearly  related  to  Racine  as  it  was  in 
essence  different.  For  just  as  in  the  great  French 
tragedy  writer,  so  here  there  is  united  with  strict  forms 
borrowed  from  the  classical  writers,  a  sympathetic,  thor- 
oughly modern  sentiment  and  a  deep  subjectivity. 


FRIEDRICH  HEBBEL  87 

There  is  hardly  a  modern  work  so  near  in  form  as  this 
to  the  ideal  of  classic  art  and  to  the  noble  simplicity 
and  modest  grandeur  of  the  ancients. 

No  one  but  a  writer  with  full  strength  in  himself 
and  with  a  complete  mastery  of  all  the  resources  of  his 
art  could  succeed  in  such  a  work.  Hebbel's  helpful 
home-life,  the  recognition  of  his  work  by  a  few,  but 
these  the  best,  his  own  feeling  of  maturity  permit  him 
now  to  look  above  him  with  the  greatest  gratitude.  In 
a  prayer  he  calls  out: 

"  Goiter,  offnet  die  Hande  nicht  mehr,  ich  wiirde  erschrecken, 
Denn  ihr  gabt  mir  genug;  hebt  sie  nur  schirmend  empor!  " 

• 

And  now  he  collected  his  whole  strength  for  a  drama 
in  which  he  aimed  at  placing  on  the  stage  before 
the  eyes  of  his  nation  Die  Nibelungen,  the  greatest 
figures  in  German  legend.  Before  him  Fouque  and 
Raupach  had  contended  for  this  prize,  and  Richard 
Wagner's  great  work,  Die  Nibelutigen,  had  just  been 
written.  Modestly  Hebbel  limited  his  purpose  to  mak- 
ing the  dramatic  contents  of  the  old  epic  soluble.  But, 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  did  not  intend  to  explore 
its  poetic-mythical  contents,  he  could  not,  true  to  his 
whole  nature,  cut  out  the  mythical  altogether.  Seven 
years,  from  1855  to  1862  he  worked,  often  interrupted 
indeed,  on  the  play,  and  the  result  was  a  trilogy  of 
eleven  acts. 

Hebbel  dispensed  with  the  mysterious  expedients  of 
the  northern  legend,  Siegfried's  double  marriage  and 
the  potion  producing  loss  of  memory,  because  according 
to  his  scarcely  tenable  view  they  would  have  expected 
too  much  of  a  modern  public  and  he  therefore  allowed 
the  characters  to  act  in  full  freedom.  He  took  the 


88  GERMAN  DRAMA 

bas-reliefs  of  the  old  poem  down  from  the  wall  and 
traced  what  was  monstrous  back  to  the  universal-human 
without  touching  the  heart  of  the  legend,  because  he 
felt  himself  here  the  interpreter  of  something  higher. 
He  says:  "One  must,  with  such  a  subject,  drop  out 
nine-tenths  of  the  culture  and  yet  manage  with  the 
rest  without  becoming  dry.  That  I  have  practised  self- 
denial,  all  just  critics  will  sooner  or  later  acknowledge; 
I  aimed  merely  at  bringing  this  great  national  epic 
dramatically  nearer  to  the  public  without  any  additions 
of  my  own." 

One  need  only  compare  Geibel's  Brunhild,  which  ap- 
peared during  the  writing  of  Hebbel's  drama,  with  the 
latter  in  order  to  recognize  that  every  attempt  to  bring 
the  incidents,  the  characters  and  the  spirit  of  the 
Nibelungenlied  near  to  modern  feeling  takes  from  the 
subject  its  grandeur  and  its  peculiar  character.  In 
Geibel's  work  Brunhild  becomes  a  coquettish  woman 
taking  vengeance  for  despised  love;  with  Hebbel  she 
appears  giantlike  in  her  emotions;  she  and  Siegfried 
are  the  last  of  a  dying  race. 

Once  more,  as  is  so  often  the  case  in  Hebbel,  we  stand 
at  the  turning-point  of  two  periods.  In  Hagen  the  old 
is  represented  with  its  unyielding  nature,  its  lack  of 
higher  morality,  its  untamed  hate  and  jealousy.  Even 
fidelity  is  counted  to  him  as  guilt.  The  Nibelungs  must 
perish  because  their  perjury  over  Siegfried's  dead  body 
has  shown  them  all  to  be  men  blinded  and  entangled 
in  narrow  selfishness.  Kriemhild  belongs  to  the  new 
period  with  her  quiet  gentleness  but  withers  away  in 
heart;  world-weary  and  in  despair  she  has  to  do  duty 
as  an  avenger.  At  the  close  Dietrich  von  Bern  em- 
bodies the  new  epoch  of  Christianity,  heroically  but 


FRIEDRICH  HEBBEL  89 

humbly,  even  when  the  crowns  of  the  world  are  placed 
in  his  hands. 

Even  Hebbel's  mighty  talent  did  not  succeed  in 
overcoming  the  epic  character  of  the  Nibelungen-theme. 
In  his  work,  too,  what  happens  outweighs  the  inner 
changes  finding  expression  in  action,  although  the 
mighty  collision  of  opposites  at  the  climaxes  and  the 
wonderful  depth  of  characterization  just  at  these  points 
produce  the  appearance  of  the  dramatic.  If  Die 
Nibelungen,  of  all  the  works  of  Hebbel  after  the  Maria 
Magdale-na,  at  present  appear  most  frequently  on  the 
stage  and  receive  the  greatest  applause,  they  owe  this 
to  the  national  subject  and  to  the  lucidity  of  the  charac- 
terization which  is  interspersed  and  overlaid  with  dialec- 
tical discussion  of  difficult  problems,  as  happened  so 
often  in  the  earlier  dramas  of  the  author. 

Hebbel  seized  upon  a  genuinely  dramatic  theme  which 
had  already  attracted  a  number  of  poets,  among  them 
Schiller,  in  the  Demetrius  (1855-63),  but  death  took 
the  pen  out  of  his  hand  also,  Dec.  13,  1863,  before  the 
work  was  completed.  At  first  he  had  been  moved,  like 
so  many  others,  to  supplement  Schiller's  fragment.  At 
that  time  there  was  widely  known  only  the  sketch  of  a 
continuation,  useless  for  the  stage,  which  Korner  had 
put  together  from  Schiller's  numerous  and  very  diver- 
gent posthumous  plans.  But  even  leaving  that  out  of 
the  question,  Hebbel's  entirely  different  nature  would 
have  made  it  impossible  for  him  to  continue  in  Schiller's 
spirit  and  he  soon  came  to  the  conviction  that  one  could 
just  as  little  begin  to  write  on  from  where  Schiller 
had  left  off,  as  begin  to  love  from  where  another  had 
ceased.  Besides  he  wrongly  supposed,  misled  by 
Korner 's  intimations,  that  Schiller  had  intended  to 


90  GERMAN  DRAMA 

make  his  hero,  as  a  conscious  deceiver,  fight  in  the  last 
acts  to  preserve  his  usurped  throne,  which  was  not  the 
case.  He  therefore  sketched  his  own  independent 
framework,  made  his  hero  appear  at  first  in  lowliness, 
as  Schiller  had  done  in  the  original  plan  of  his  first 
act,  and  mixed  into  this  portrait  the  feelings  of  his  own 
hard  experience  in  youth.  His  Demetrius  is  destroyed 
at  the  moment  that  he  recognizes  the  unrighteousness 
of  his  claim  to  the  crown  and  after  that  thinks  only 
of  the  rescue  of  the  friends  who  have  given  him  their 
aid.  He  is  destroyed  because  he  is  too  noble  and  pure 
for  the  calling  of  a  usurper  which  fate  forces  upon 
him.  But  this  solution  carries  with  it  the  danger  that 
the  hero  will  fall  a  victim  to  fate  without  resistance  and 
hence  a  depressing  sense  of  the  ruin  of  a  pure  innocent 
nature  takes  the  place  of  mighty  tragedy.  It  must  be 
remembered  that  Hebbel  had  already  described  similar 
fates  in  Genoveva,  Maria  Magdalena,  Agnes  Bernauer, 
and  Rhodope,  but  there  had  been  placed  beside  them 
such  characters  as  Golo,  Meister  Anton,  Duke  Ernest, 
and  Kandaules,  whose  passionate  energy  had  balanced 
the  lack  of  force  in  the  female  characters.  Moreover, 
these  victims  of  fate  were  all  women,  whose  sex  in  itself 
makes  one  more  easily  forget  the  lack  of  energetic  oppo- 
sition. 

Alongside  the  completed  works  of  Hebbel  there  tower 
aloft  in  his  workshop,  like  mighty  but  only  roughly  chis- 
elled granite  blocks,  a  number  of  uncompleted  dramatic 
modellings  of  legendary  and  historic  incidents.  From 
the  years  of  his  youth,  before  Judith,  comes  Mirandola,  a 
preliminary  study  for  Genoveva,  influenced,  just  as  was 
Der  Vatermord  (1831),  by  the  popular  tendencies  of 
the  robber  and  fate  drama  prevalent  at  that  time.  In 


FRIEDRICH  HEBBEL  91 

Munich  a  succession  of  great  historic  personages  appear 
to  his  vision :  Julian  the  Apostate,  the  Maid  of  Orleans, 
Napoleon,  figures  from  whom  much  passed  over  to  Holo- 
fernes,  Judith  and  Herod.  Further  Alexander  the 
Great,  his  heart  torn  with  doubt  whether  he  was  the 
son  of  Philip  or  Jupiter  Ammon ;  then  for  a  long  time 
vacillating  between  drama  and  novel,  the  plan  of  Die 
Ditmarschen,  the  picture  of  -the  author 's  own  country- 
men with  their  defiant  love  of  freedom,  which  was  so 
brilliantly  shown  in  the  battle  of  Hemmingstedt  against 
the  Danes. 

The  greatest  of  these  plans  was  that  of  Moloch,  which 
from  1837  to  Hebbel's  death  exercised  its  attractive 
power  over  him  and  yet,  after  repeated  attempts,  was 
not  put  into  shape.  It  was  certainly  the  loftiest  idea 
of  all  that  arose  in  the  poet's  mind  but  just  for  that 
reason  offered  the  greatest  difficulties  to  realization  in 
form.  In  it  he  wished  to  illustrate  the  evolution  of 
the  religious  and  political  relations  which  continue 
throughout  the  whole  course  of  history,  although  modi- 
fied considerably  during  the  centuries.  Rome,  Carthage, 
and  primitive  German  conditions  were  to  form  the 
background,  the  theme  was  the  coming  of  culture  to 
the  barbarian.  By  Hiram,  a  fugitive  from  Carthage 
when  destroyed  by  the  Romans,  the  belief  in  Moloch, 
a  mass  of  iron  which  he  brought  with  him,  is  utilized 
to  teach  the  barbarians  the  use  of  the  bodily  and  in- 
tellectual powers,  to  make  them  recognize  the  value 
of  culture  and  to  form  them  into  instruments  of  his 
revenge  by  awakening  in  them  the  longing  for  Italy. 
But  their  blind  idolatrous  belief  in  Moloch  grows  to 
an  inward  power  which  Hiram  himself  must  recognize 
and  to  which  he  falls  a  victim.  Thus  there  is  presented 


92  GERMAN  DRAMA 

in  its  beginnings  the  idea  of  God,  growing  out  of  an 
awe-filled  worship  of  the  unknown  into  the  mightiest 
factor  of  the  life  of  the  soul. 

The  further  stages  in  the  evolution  of  mankind  down 
to  the  present  are  the  chief  subject  of  Hebbel's  com- 
pleted dramas  and  his  far  more  numerous  plans.  This 
is  the  case,  for  instance,  with  the  great  fragment,  Die 
Schauspielerin  (1848-1850).  A  woman  aims  at  aveng- 
ing herself  on  the  whole  race  because  the  man  whom 
she  used  to  love  is  unworthy  of  her.  She  becomes  an 
actress  in  order  that  through  the  characters  in  drama 
she  may  awaken  love  without  responding  to  it.  But 
a  new  passion  for  a  second  man  enters  her  heart.  The 
latter  is  willing  to  risk  his  life  for  her  in  a  duel  with 
the  unworthy  one,  but  because  of  anxiety  for  her  lover, 
she  now  no  longer  charges  the  sex  with  the  offences 
which  the  individual  had  committed.  In  Eugenia,  the 
actress,  the  free  woman  with  her  rights  and  her  feelings 
carries  her  point;  she  feels  the  stain  upon  her  soul 
more  than  the  sin  against  the  body;  she  demands  for 
herself  the  right  of  untrammeled  decision  over  her  fate, 
consideration  equal  to  that  for  a  man. 

This  appears  to  be  an  attempt  to  solve  one  of  the 
chief  questions  of  the  day  but  appearances  deceive. 
The  rivalry  of  the  sexes  is  not  made  to  end  but  is 
transferred  to  another  and  nobler  sphere. 

In  his  fantastic  sketch  of  the  future,  Zu  irgend  ciner 
Zeit  (1843-1848),  Hebbel  has  also  tried  to  throw  a  light 
out  into  the  distant  darkness.  The  satiric  picture  shows 
mankind  sunk  back  again,  because  of  communism,  into 
the  animal  stage  in  which  all  individualism  has  van- 
ished and  blind  necessity  alone  prevails. 

Even  in  these  beginnings  which  scarcely  give  hope 


FRIEDRICH  HEBBEL  93 

of  a  satisfactory  artistic  development,  there  is  still 
shown,  from  all  points  of  view,  that  which  distinguishes 
Hebbel  from  the  great  mass  of  writers  of  his  time,  viz: 
the  endeavor  to  startle  and  enrich  men's  hearts  by  the 
treatment  of  the  deepest  problems  of  life  and  society, 
but  not  to  favor  the  worship  of  mere  beauty  or  to 
satisfy  the  call  for  passionate  experience  by  the  old, 
threadbare  conflicts  and  their  conventional  solutions. 
So  long  as  the  great  mass  of  spectators  wish  to  see 
only  such  requirements  fulfilled  in  serious  drama,  Heb- 
bel cannot  be  their  poet  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  does 
not  really  lack  dramatic  life  and  sensuous  wealth  of 
delineation.  He  himself  has  convincingly  explained  in 
numerous  critical  essays  his  aim  and  its  justification, 
especially  in  the  three  long  articles,  Mein  Wort  uber  das 
Drama  (1843),  Vorwort  zu  Maria  Magdalena  (1844) 
and  Uber  den  Stil  des  Dramas  (1847).  Even  during 
his  life  he  had  enthusiastic  admirers  and  their  number 
is  still  constantly  growing,  but  general  recognition  of 
Hebbel  as  the  greatest  dramatist  since  Schiller  has  not 
yet  resulted  and  it  can  only  be  hoped  that  it  will  come 
at  no  very  distant  time.  The  hindrances  to  this  lie 
in  his  pessimism,  in  his  preference  for  the  abnormal 
rather  than  what  is  generally  accepted,  in  his  mingling 
of  sensuous  warmth  and  cold  dialectic  discussion,  and 
in  his  clothing  of  modern  problems  in  historical  dress. 
These  are  easier  to  overcome,  however,  than  the  obscur- 
ity of  his  psychological  hypotheses,  the  threads  of  which 
can  often  be  followed  only  with  difficulty.  But  just 
on  this  point  the  greatest  of  his  successors,  Ibsen,  has 
broken  down  the  earlier  passive  resistance  and  therefore 
the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  the  complete  understand- 
ing of  Hebbel  are  to-day  no  longer  so  great  as  in  his 
lifetime  when  he  stood  almost  alone  on  the  stage. 


94  GERMAN  DRAMA 

OTTO  LUDWIG 

The  only  writer  who  might  have  taken  his  place 
beside  Hebbel,  because  of  his  endeavor  to  produce 
dramas  in  keeping  with  the  spirit  of  the  times  and  of 
real  weight  because  of  their  contents  and  artistic  merit, 
was  OTTO  LUDWIG,  who  was  born  at  Eisfeld  in  Thurin- 
gia,  Feb.  11,  1813,  and  died  after  a  long  and  severe 
illness  in  Dresden,  Feb.  25,  1865.  But  his  lack  of 
energetic,  connected  and  unswerving  effort  towards  the 
goal  of  artistic  creation,  his  wrestling  with  technical 
problems  and  his  uncertainty  of  judgment  in  regard 
to  his  own  performances,  made  it  impossible  for  him  to 
stamp  his  own  artistic  personality  upon  any  large 
number  of  great  works.  He  said,  "The  beautiful  is 
never  completed,  it  could  always  become  still  more 
beautiful." 

By  ceaseless  brooding  he  destroyed  his  own  power  of 
production  and  it  was  because  of  despair  that  he  finally 
clung  to  Shakespeare  as  the  dramatist  who  is  in  every 
way  an  absolute  standard.  Therefore  it  is  with  a  cer- 
tain sense  of  justice  that  all  his  posthumous  discussions 
of  dramatic  creation  are  entitled  Shakespeare-Stud i<  n, 
although  they  by  no  means  have  reference  to  Shake- 
speare alone. 

In  many  respects  he  is  nearly  related  to  Hebbel ;  in 
his  rejection  of  the  classical  drama  of  beauty,  because 
"everything  is  beautiful,  nothing  is  ugly  if  it  is  only 
in  its  right  place,"  in  his  demand  for  subjects  suited 
to  the  times,  in  the  reconciliation  of  art  and  life,  and 
in  his  perception  that  the  history  of  the  tragic  reveals 
itself  as  the  history  of  the  ethical  interpretation  of  soul- 
conflicts.  But  he  rejects  the  problem-drama  entirely 


OTTO  LUDWIG  95 

and  would  ask  from  poetry  not  to  be  made  to  think 
but  to  feel.  In  the  influences  of  philosophy  and  of 
antiquity  he  sees  the  causes  which  led  Schiller  and  his 
successors  from  the  right  path.  He  says:  "Out  of  the 
confusion  into  which  we  have  fallen  because  of  reflec- 
tion, reflection  alone  can  bring  us.  We  must  through 
it  rid  ourselves  of  it."  The  great  German  authors  had 
set  themselves  another  problem  than  the  dramatic.  To 
them  the  drama  was  only  a  means  and  it  had  to  make 
atonement  therefor.  Now  it  is  a  question  of  finding 
the  way  back  to  the  drama,  of  recognising  the  dramatic 
duty  of  the  times,  and  this  he  sees  in  the  suppression 
of  the  lyrical  and  idyllic  and  in  the  reproduction  of 
the  great  passions  and  of  manly  energy.  From  the 
reciprocal  relations  of  the  author,  the  actor  and  the 
public,  the  essential  factors  of  the  drama,  he  desires 
to  develop  his  technique.  He  comes  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  drama  must  come  down  to  the  common  needs 
of  the  people  who,  as  Ludwig  says,  attend  the  theatre 
to  obtain  a  rest,  not  from  the  worries  of  life  but  from 
life  itself.  The  dramatist  is  to  bring  something  to 
everybody.  While  he  is  continually  transposing  the 
sum  of  human  powers  into  a  living  play — these  different 
requirements  proceed  essentially  from  the  one-sided 
prominence  usually  attached  to  one  of  them — he  re- 
stores again  in  the  individual  spectator,  at  least  for 
the  brief  period  of  the  full  power  of  his  magic,  the 
original  totality  of  the  person,  however  much  his  par- 
ticular position  in  life,  his  education  or  his  experience 
of  special  daily  professional  work  have  put  him  out  of 
joint  and  by  developing  to  the  greatest  possible  degree 
some  parts  of  his  being  have  left  the  others  to  waste 
away  from  lack  of  use. 


96  GERMAN  DRAMA 

In  the  dramatist  Otto  Ludwig  the  strongest  impulse 
is  that  to  truth,  to  a  perfect  and  faithful  representation 
of  reality.  How  near  he  came  to  this  goal  is  shown 
by  his  first  acted  drama,  Der  Erbforster  (1845-1849). 
Like  all  Ludwig 's  works,  this  grew  slowly  and  with 
great  difficulty,  out  of  a  multitude  of  schemes.  His 
own  dramatic  requirements  give  at  the  same  time  the 
essence  of  the  play:  "The  motives  follow  one  another 
quickly  and  urgently.  There  is  to  be  no  trace  of  effem- 
inacy, one  figure  must  always  be  stronger  than  the 
second,  but  none  quixotic.  The  language  must  be  pithy, 
popular,  clear,  robust,  alounding  in  proverbs,  in  short, 
like  Luther's.  The  rustling  woods  must  always  look 
down  upon  the  scene.  Reality  must  be  made  beautiful 
but  not  too  restricted."  But  where  Ludwig  further 
requires  that  the  play  must  "grow  without  cessation, 
seem  to  have  root  in  Iffland  and  with  its  crown  touch 
Shakespeare,  and  everything  be  simple,  nothing  either 
in  character  or  in  situation,  affected  or  curious,"  then 
he  was  not  able  to  satisfy  his  own  demand. 

Chief  forester  Christian  Ulrich  is  a  character  much 
like  Hebbel's  Master  Anton.  Just  as  the  latter  is  nar- 
rowed in  his  thought  by  class-consciousness  and  the  ideas 
of  right  and  honor  peculiar  to  the  lower  classes,  so,  for 
the  former,  reality  and  its  conditions  vanish  behind 
the  thick  green  trees  of  the  forest  with  which  his  life  is 
bound  up.  While  he  believes  he  is  upholding  his  rights 
he  commits  not  only  a  series  of  grievous  irregularities, 
but  his  clear  eye  also  loses  the  power  of  sharp  discern- 
ment and  thereby  he  becomes  the  victim  of  unfortunate 
accidents  which  make  him  a  criminal,  the  murderer 
of  his  daughter.  But  fate  does  not  govern  in  this  play 
as  in  Werner  and  Milliner,  where  an  unfortunate  coin- 


OTTO  LUDWIG  97 

cidence  of  trifling  circumstances  brings  about  the  pain- 
ful result,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  these  incidents  become 
of  significance  only  because  feelings  irritated  to  the 
highest  degree  destroy  reflection  and  drive  a  man  pre- 
viously calm  to  act  rashly  and  in  wild  sudden  passion. 
Shakespeare's  Othello  is  obviously  the  model  for  such 
a  development.  As  in  it,  so  in  the  Erbforster,  the  mon- 
strous delusion  which  destroys  the  hero  is  the  real 
subject  of  the  drama  and  it  keeps  growing  until  it 
finally  overpowers  him. 

This  great  drama  has  all  the  greater  effect  because 
the  outward  forms  of  middle-class  tragedy  are  employed, 
which  very  rarely  give  room  for  the  mighty  passion 
that  produces  the  highest  tragic  emotions  and  because 
the  characters  appear  unpretentious  and  true  to  nature 
in  language  and  gesture  and  without  any  pathos  what- 
ever. Ludwig  did  not  indeed  master  the  difficulty  of 
making  clear  and  convincing  within  this  limitation  the 
course  of  a  mighty  fate :  the  pettiness  of  the  motives 
in  the  last  acts  makes  the  spectator  misjudge  the  great 
purpose  of  the  dramatist  and  the  action  in  its  second 
part  seems  to  owe  its  impelling  force  more  to  something 
from  without  than  from  within.  But  even  this  fault  is, 
from  Ludwig 's  standpoint,  of  lesser  importance  because 
he  aimed,  as  we  have  seen,  at  awakening  a  certain  feel- 
ing; all  else  to  him  was  only  a  means  to  that  end  and 
he  required  that  he  who  wished  to  decide  of  the  nature 
of  the  work  must  think  of  the  impression  and  not  of 
the  means. 

From  the  nature  of  the  mountains  and  their  inhab- 
itants, the  seclusion  of  the  forester's  house  and  the 
environment,  comes  the  strangely  mingled  effect  of  Der 
Erbforster:  fresh,  spicy,  chest-expanding  forest  air,  free 


98  GERMAN  DRAMA 

and  beautiful  nature,  and  in  the  people  stupid  narrow- 
ness, ineffectual  desire  and  petty  performance. 

The  first  two  factors  of  the  drama,  the  dramatist  and 
the  actor,  get  their  rights  in  this  play,  but  the  claims 
of  the  third  part,  the  public,  to  a  clearly  intelligible, 
immediately  comprehensible  expression  of  the  purposes 
of  the  author  are  not  realized. 

Ludwig  called  Der  Erbforster  a  declaration  of  war 
against  unnaturalness  and  the  conventional  fashion  of 
present  day  poetry  as  well  as  of  dramatic  art.  But 
there  was  lacking  in  the  call  to  the  people  the  convinc- 
ing power  to  attract  the  great  body  to  his  standard, 
even  if  some  of  the  best  did  applaud. 

But  one  other  work  by  Ludwig  was  put  upon  the 
stage  in  his  lifetime,  Die  Makkabaer  (1850-52).  Again, 
after  great  wrestlings,  the  final  form  grew  out  of  re- 
peated remodellings  of  the  rude  material  taken  from 
the  Bible.  Originally,  when  the  piece  was  still  called 
Die  Makkabderin,  the  two  hostile  wives  of  Judah, 
the  priest,  were  the  central  figures  and  his  struggles 
formed  only  a  background  of  extrinsic  and  opera- 
like  liveliness.  In  the  second  revision  the  elder  wife 
Leah  was  made  the  mother  of  Judah  and  opposed 
to  her  was  his  young  wife  Naomi,  hated  and  de- 
spised. Greater  importance  is  attached  now  to  the 
contrast  between  Judah  and  his  younger  brother  Eleazer, 
the  vanity  of  whose  mother  wishes  to  place  him  on  the 
throne  of  Jerusalem.  From  the  broader  foundation  of 
this  second  version,  by  contraction  and  stronger  empha- 
sis on  the  dramatic,  the  last  form  of  Die  Makkabaer  was 
constructed.  As  in  the  Erbforster,  so  also  here  con- 
ditions of  time  and  place  give  the  feeling  that  prevails 
throughout.  Nowhere  does  the  absolute,  free  Ego  ap- 


OTTO  LUDWIG  99 

pear  as  with  Schiller  and  his  successors.  The  people 
are  closely  bound  up  in  the  prejudices  and  peculiarities 
of  their  race  and  age.  This  is  shown  especially  and 
conclusively  in  that  the  nation  places  itself  blindly 
under  the  dominion  of  the  god  which  it  created  for 
itself  after  its  own  image.  From  this  belief  comes  the 
strength  of  Judah  and  his  family  but  also  their  de- 
struction. The  tragic  fate  of  the  great  and  simple  hero 
Judah  arises  from  the  fact  that  he  cannot  free  his 
people  from  the  confining  limits  of  this  blind  belief. 

It  is  hard  to  see  why  Ludwig  placed  the  mother 
beside  Judah  as  a  martyr  to  the  true  faith,  unless  one 
thinks  of  the  history  of  the  origin  of  the  play.  As  it 
now  stands,  one's  sympathy  vacillates  undecided  be- 
tween the  two  chief  characters  and  the  action  is  forced, 
picking  its  way  with  difficulty  from  the  one  to  the  other. 
At  the  same  time  one  also  feels  that  in  the  dramatist's 
mind  the  fate  of  the  nation  stands  above  their  personal 
fate  as  the  more  important.  Here  is  another  of  those 
beginnings  of  dramatic  psychology  of  the  masses  such 
as  we  find  in  Kleist's  Robert  Guiskard  and  Hebbel's 
Judith.  In  his  dissection  and  combination  of  the  sum 
total  of  instincts  and  feelings  by  means  of  single 
speakers  Ludwig  is  at  least  the  equal  of  both.  The 
style  of  the  Makkabder  allowed  him  to  dispense  with 
the  little  devices  of  the  Erbforster.  The  great  tragic 
effect  would  appear  in  its  purity,  were  it  not  clouded 
by  the  unevenness  of  the  composition  which  arises  from 
the  organic  weakness  of  the  drama.  To  this  cause  alone 
is  it  to  be  ascribed  that  Ludwig 's  great  work  is  so  rarely 
permitted  to  appear  on  the  stage.  Its  subject,  its 
mature  quiet  beauty  of  form,  its  easily  comprehended 
fundamental  motives  of  patriotism  and  of  family  in- 


100  GERM  AX  DRAMA 

stinct,  the  simple  heroism  of  Judah,  the  motherly  devo- 
tion and  passionate  pride  of  Leah — all  these  are  effective 
on  the  stage,  easily  comprehensible,  and  should  arouse 
enthusiasm,  although  Ludwig  avoided  the  cheap  effects 
of  the  average  dramatists  of  his  time. 

Excessive  reflection,  which  caused  him  repeatedly  to 
destroy  what  he  had  written,  restrained  Ludwig  from 
publishing  other  dramatic  works.  The  numerous  seem- 
ingly finished  plays  and  incomplete  sketches  found 
among  his  papers  are  a  sad  proof  of  how  he  wore  out 
his  powers  in  his  struggle  with  this  opposing  element. 
If,  for  example,  like  Hebbel,  he  makes  Agnes  Bernauer 
the  heroine  of  a  tragedy,  he  first  deduces  her  fate  from  an 
intrigue  of  her  tricky  lover  so  that  she  appears  as  a  sort 
of  Genoveva ;  then  he  hesitates  whether  the  unequal  mar- 
riage is  to  be  unfortunate  in  itself  or  whether  the  power 
of  the  state  and  politics  is  t6  shatter  the  union ;  then 
again  he  decides  to  picture  Agnes  as  blinded  by  vanity 
and  ambition  and  only  when  the  husband  does  not  know 
what  to  think  of  her,  does  he  let  her  purer  love  develop ; 
finally  he  has  this  soul-union  destroyed  by  higher  state- 
interests,  that  is,  he  reached  apparently  the  same  solu- 
tion as  Hebbel.  But  while  the  latter,  like  the  lion  in 
the  fable,  only  springs  once  upon  the  prey,  whether 
he  overpowers  it  or  not,  Ludwig  circles  round  and  round 
the  desired  object  and  keeps  repeating  his  attack  be- 
cause he  lacks  confidence  in  his  own  strength  and  a 
simple  accurate  conception  of  his  aim. 

In  vain  have  such  competent  editors  as  Ernst  von 
Wildenbruch,  Wilhelm  Buchholz,  Josef  Lewinsky  and 
Christian  Otto  attempted  to  save  for  the  stage  the 
seemingly  completed  drama,  Das  Frdulein  von  Scudery. 
The  organic  defect  that,  as  in  Die  Makkabder,  the  inter- 


OTTO  LUDWIG  101 

est  passes  from  the  real  hero  to  another  character  and 
also  the  epic  nature  of  the  short  story  by  E.  T.  A. 
Hoffmann  from  which  Ludwig  got  his  material  have 
destroyed  the  effect  which  the  fine  psychological  motiva- 
tion of  the  romantic  incident  deserved. 

The  question  arises  how  Ludwig  came  to  choose  by 
preference  just  such  subjects.  The  explanation  lies  in 
the  fact  that  he  was  incited  to  replace  by  a  greater 
variety  of  elementary  motives  that  rich  superficial  life 
which  through  Schiller's  influence  had  prevailed  on  the 
German  stage,  to  its  hurt  it  has  been  said,  and  which, 
because  of  the  weakness  of  puny  imitators  and  the 
influence  of  French  models,  had  more  and  more  sup- 
planted character-drawing,  deeper  motivation  and  genu- 
ine dramatic  life. 

Just  because  Ludwig  wished  to  make  an  improvement 
in  this  direction,  he  chose  his  subjects  preferably  from 
the  same  fields  as  his  opponents;  Wallenstein  and 
Marino  Falieri,  Friedrich  II  and  King  Alfred  of  Eng- 
land, Mary  Stuart  and  many  similar  historic  and  heroic 
figures,  finally  Tiberius  Gracchus,  all  appeared  to  his 
vision  but  they  did  not  take  on  any  distinct  form  in 
spite  of  all  the  author's  admonitions  to  himself,  when 
he  cried  out,  "Straight  as  a  string,  most  simple  and 
compact,  concise,  above  all  no  ramifications  to  infinity, 
etc. ' '  In  vain  did  he  try  to  give  life  to  those  characters 
which  had  their  origin  in  reflection,  in  vain  did  he 
continue  to  read  Shakespeare  so  as  not  to  fall  into  "the 
microscopical " ;  he  could  not  rid  himself  of  the  ' '  dotting 
and  pointing"  and  at  the  same  time  he  lost  sight  of  the 
lines  of  direction.  Ludwig  really  possessed  but  half 
of  the  special  gifts  which  make  the  dramatist,  but  just 
that  very  portion  which  is  for  the  most  part  less  de- 


102  GERMAN  DRAMA 

veloped  in  German  writers.  He  knew  only  too  well 
the  technical  conditions  but  when  the  sum  total  of  these 
conditions  presented  themselves  to  him  in  the  moment 
of  creation,  he  lost  the  necessary  directness  and  plastic 
accuracy.  Although  he  was  a  genuine  and  original 
dramatist,  he  belonged  after  all  to  the  representatives 
of  decadence  who  are  not  able  to  give  art  new  thought 
and  new  forms.  Like  Moses  he  saw  his  people  wander- 
ing in  the  wilderness  and  tried  by  never-ending  self- 
observation  to  find  the  guide  in  his  own  breast,  but  the 
signs  failed  repeatedly  and  he  finally  clung  in  despair 
to  the  image  of  Shakespeare,  which,  as  he  believed,  gave 
him  the  firmest  hold.  Others  also  might  certainly  have 
found  support  there  but  when  his  Shakespeare-Studien 
appeared  in  1871,  no  one  seized  the  outstretched  hand. 

"THE  SEVENTIES" 

When  German  unity  had  been  won  back  on  the  battle- 
fields of  France  and  the  Empire  been  proclaimed  again 
at  Versailles,  people  were  hoping  that  for  the  stage 
also,  through  a  strong  development  of  the  national  spirit, 
a  new  period  of  prosperity  would  grow  out  of  the  same 
enthusiasm  which  had  revealed  itself  so  overpoweringly 
in  battle.  But  the  low  condition  of  artistic  education, 
the  preponderance  of  coarse  materialism  which  cele- 
brated its  orgies  in  the  years  immediately  following  the 
war  and  the  complete  exhaustion  which,  after  the  great 
commercial  crisis  of  1873,  lamed  all  effort,  but  above 
all  the  demoralisation  of  the  actor's  art  caused  these 
hopes  to  come  to  nought. 

The  plays  of  Goethe  and  Schiller  were  still  given  be- 
cause of  a  sort  of  feeling  of  propriety,  or  to  offer  travel- 


"THE  SEVENTIES"  103 

ling  "stars"  an  opportunity  to  make  use  of  their  arts 
but  there  was  in  these  performances  a  lack  of  any  loving 
care,  or  any  entering  into  the  spirit  of  the  writings 
while  everything  was  ruthlessly  cut  out  which  did  not 
give  promise  of  an  immediate  outward  effect. 

At  no  time  was  there  greater  justice  in  the  complaint 
of  the  more  ambitious  dramatists  that  the  managers  of 
the  various  theatres  blocked  their  admittance.  When 
here  and  there  individual  court-theatres  opened  their 
doors  to  works  of  the  nobler  class,  this  unusual  favor 
was  owing  almost  always  to  personal  connection  or  to  a 
hazy  liking  for  the  'ideal  on  the  part  of  the  manager 
and  therefore  it  mostly  benefited  only  the  amateurs. 

Only  very  rarely  did  a  greater  talent  arise  and  suc- 
ceed in  forcing  his  way  through.  ALBERT  LINDNER  won 
applause  for  his  powerful  Roman  drama,  Brutus  and 
Collatinus  (1866),  and  the  Schiller-prize  founded  by 
King  Wilhelm  I  of  Prussia,  but  the  expectations  which 
this  work  aroused  were  not  fulfilled  afterwards  and  the 
author's  life  closed  in  insanity,  a  victim  of  vain  effort. 

ADOLPH  WILBRANDT  possessed  a  stronger  nature  and 
greater  flexibility.  He  showed  his  fine  artistic  sense  in 
pleasant  comedies  like  Die  Maler  (1892),  which  were 
written  in  a  form  suitable  for  the  stage.  In  the  trage- 
dies Arria  und  Messalina  (1874)  and  Nero  (1876)  he 
portrayed,  in  the  same  style  as  his  contemporary  Makart, 
the  real  representative  of  the  art  of  this  period,  scenes 
from  luxurious  Rome  of  Imperial  days  and  in  this  way 
won  the  public  that  sought  from  the  stage  only  sensuous 
charm. 

Full  of  spirit  but  aiming  too  much  at  outward  effects 
was  the  painter  and  poet,  ARTHUR  FITGER,  in  his  Hexe 
(1876).  Because  of  the  boldness  with  which  free 


104  GERMAN  DRAMA 

thought,  which  was  indeed  not  deep,  was  contrasted  with 
dogma,  the  play  caused  a  sensation  and  in  certain  cir- 
cles was  enthusiastically  received.  The  colors  are  just 
as  harsh  as  in  Fitger's  following  works,  Von  Gottes 
Gnaden  (1884)  and  Die  Rosen  von  Tyburn  (1888), 
which  had  no  success  on  the  stage. 

With  seeming  psychological  depth  and  outwardly 
modern  expression  RICHARD  Voss  delineates  by  prefer- 
ence in  his  numerous  dramas  women  of  abnormal  dispo- 
sition: Magda  (1875),  Mutter  Gertrud  (1885),  Alex- 
andra (1886),  Eva  (1889).  The  clever  construction  and 
accurate  calculation  of  effect  could  not,  however,  in  the 
long  run  delude  people  into  overlooking  the  painful 
character  of  his  subjects  and  their  innate  unreality.  In 
regard  to  his  choice  of  subjects  and  his  method  of  treat- 
ment Voss  was  strongly  influenced  by  the  French  play 
of  manners.  The  defeated  of  1871  became  the  rulers 
on  the  German  stage.  Society  of  the  Second  French 
Empire  had  been  reflected  in  that  dramatic  class  whose 
chief  representative  was  Alexander  Dumas  fils.  Be- 
ginning with  La  Dame  aux  Camelias  he  had  written  a 
long  succession  of  plays  in  which  he  delineated  the 
upper  circles  of  Paris  with  their  moral  unscrupulous- 
ness,  their  race  after  money  and  pleasure,  their  elegant 
men  and  women.  With  their  halo  of  beauty  and  un- 
merited misfortune  the  fallen  woman  and  the  adulteress 
are  glorified  and  as  a  problem  of  the  highest  impor- 
tance for  this  society  Dumas  discusses  from  continually 
new  standpoints  the  relation  of  monde  and  demi-monde. 
He  generally  puts  his  views  in  the  mouth  of  an  expe- 
rienced man  of  the  world  who,  with  a  superior  air,  looks 
down  upon  the  doings  of  the  rest  and  guides  the  action 
which  is  usually  not  very  comprehensive  but  always 


"THE  SEVENTIES"  105 

exciting.  The  brilliant  varnish  of  witty  dialogue  dis- 
guises the  dramatic  faults  of  the  pictures  which  are 
mostly  grouped  about  one  large  scene  in  which  the  op- 
posing forces  come  together  with  a  loud  crash. 

The  skilful  make-up  of  these  plays,  their  frivolity, 
their  esprit  and  their  apparent  freedom  from  narrow 
middle-class  ethics  exercised  the  greatest  charm  upon 
the  audiences  of  German  theatres.  In  Berlin  and 
Vienna  special  theatres  were  built  for  them  and  in  these 
there  grew  up  a  new  and  elegant  style  of  dramatic  art 
which,  however,  could  not  make  up  for  the  moral  mis- 
chief produced  by  these  glorifications  of  a  degenerate 
and  pleasure-loving  society. 

The  operettas  which  crossed  the  Rhine  were  also  filled 
with  the  same  spirit.  Their  master,  Offenbach,  satu- 
rated the  insinuating  melodies  with  a  bold  contempt  for 
everything  noble  and  with  the  careless  mirth  of  Pa- 
risian life.  This  class  was  also  hailed  with  joy  in  Ger- 
many and  fostered  with  great  success  in  its  own  "tem- 
ples of  art."  French  plays  and  French  operettas  won 
the  lion's  share  of  all  triumphs  in  the  seventies  until 
Johann  Strauss  of  Vienna  created  in  his  Fledermaus 
(1876)  the  Viennese  operetta  which,  in  the  same  spirit, 
contributed  to  the  lightest  kind  of  entertainment,  but 
was  better  suited  to  German  taste. 

The  efforts  to  do  the  same  for  the  play  resulted  in 
failure,  chiefly  because  luckily  there  was  in  Germany 
no  society  in  the  French  sense,  though  in  the  larger  cit- 
ies some  tendencies  in  that  direction  were  growing  up 
in  the  circles  of  the  newly-rich. 

PAUL.  LINDAU  was  most  successful  in  sketching  pic- 
tures from  this  society,  with  outlines  in  French  style. 
In  his  first  play,  Marion  (1869),  the  scene  of  which  is 


106  GERMAN  DRAMA 

laid  in  France,  the  defender  of  an  honorable  system  of 
ethics  is  answered  ' '  Ethics !  Ethics !  Contact  with  the 
parvenues  of  the  middle  classes  is  poisoning  our  whole 
society."  But  in  truth  the  types  which  he  afterwards 
introduced  on  German  soil  in  Maria  und  Magdalena 
(1872)  and  Ein  Erfolg  (1874)  are  after  all  for  the  most 
part  only  parvenues,  who  are  supposed  to  represent  a 
new  plutocracy.  The  cleverness  of  the  light  conversa- 
tion deluded  people  for  a  long  time  into  overlooking  the 
worthlessness  of  these  plays  and  later  also  Lindau 
achieved  in  the  same  way  many  more  momentary  suc- 
cesses. So  also  could  HUGO  LUBLINER  obtain  recogni- 
tion, at  a  time  when  art  had  sunk  to  its  lowest  depths, 
with  his  more  harmless  but  also  less  clever  plays,  Der 
Frauenadovkat  (1874),  Die  Frau  ohne  Geist  (1879). 

Hardly  ever  has  there  been  in  a  highly  civilized  nation 
in  an  epoch  of  great  national  triumphs  a  stage  that  was 
so  degenerate  as  the  German  of  the  seventies.  As  a 
proof  the  new  works  may  be  cited  which  appeared  in 
the  two  best  theatres  of  Berlin  and  Vienna  in  the  year 
1875.  In  the  Royal  theatre  in  Berlin  these  were : 

Die  Modelle  des  Sheridan,  play  in  four  acts  by  Lub- 
liner. 

Die  Hermannsschlacht,  by  Kleist,  revised  for  the  stage 
by  Genee. 

Liebe  filr  Hebe,  play  in  four  acts  by  Spielhagen. 

Was  ist  eine  Plaudereif  "A  bit  of  gossip"  in  one 
act  by  Gensichen. 

Bogadil,  comedy  in  one  act  by  Murad  Effendi. 

Der  Hauptmann  von  Kapernaum,  farce  in  three 
scenes  by  Winterfeldt. 

Der  verlorene  Solin.  comedy  in  one  act  by  Ring. 

Der  Frauenadvokat,  play  in  three  acts  by  Lubliner. 


"THE  SEVENTIES"  107 

Der  Feind  im  Hause,  tragedy  in  five  acts  by  0.  Ro- 
quette. 

Komtesse  Dornroschen,  "family  life"  in  one  act  by 
Duke  Elimar  von  Oldenburg. 

Marius  in  Minturnd,  play  in  one  act  by  Marbach. 

Der  Seelenretter,  comedy  in  one  act  by  Hedwig  Dohm. 

Der  Zankapfel,  farce  in  one  act  by  Paul  Lindau. 

Die  Frau  fur  die  Welt,  play  in  five  acts  by  Wichert. 

Tante  Therese,  play  in  four  acts  by  Paul  Lindau. 

Im  Altertumscabinett,  comedy  in  one  act  by  0.  Sigl. 

Citronen,  farce  in  four  acts  by  Rosen. 

In  the  same  year  the  Imperial  Burg-theatre  in  Vienna 
offered  the  following: 

Die  Versucherin,  comedy  in  one  act  by  G.  von  Moser. 

Uber  die  Mauer,  comedy  in  one  act  by  Najac. 

Eine  Geschichte  aus  Kentucky,  comedy  in  two  acts 
by  W.  Marr. 

Liebe  fur  Liebe,  play  in  four  acts  by  Spielhagen. 

Parisina,  tragedy  by    Mosenthal. 

Das  Trauerspiel  des  Kindes,  play  in  two  acts  by 
Schlesinger. 

Ein  passionierter  Rancher,  farce  in  one  act  by  Duke 
Elimar  von  Oldenburg. 

Nero,  tragedy  in  five  acts  by  Adolf  Wilbrandt. 

Tante  Therese,  play  in  four  acts  by  Lindau. 

The  number  and  still  more  the  merit  of  these  pieces 
is  frightfully  small  and  confirms  unquestionably  the 
statement  made  above. 

In  the  year  1863  the  "Schiller  prize,"  intended  for 
the  best  drama  of  the  last  three  years,  could  still  be 
given  to  an  important  work,  Hebbel's  Nibelungen,  in 
1866  it  was  assigned  to  Lindau 's  Brutus  and  Collatinus, 
a  drama  in  which  artistic  purposes  and  power  were  at 


108  GERMAN  DRAMA 

least  recognisable.  In  1869  it  was  given  to  Geibel's 
Sophonisbe,  a  play  quite  worthless  from  a  dramatic 
standpoint,  in  1872  and  1875  it  could  not  be  assigned 
at  all  and  in  1878  Wilbrandt,  Nissel  and  Anzengruber 
received  it,  not  for  definite  plays  but  in  acknowledg- 
ment of  their  pre-eminent  talents. 

LUDWIG  ANZENGRUBER 

In  the  list  of  authors  of  new  plays  for  1875  one  looks 
in  vain  for  the  name  of  LUDWIG  ANZENGRUBER,  the  third 
writer  rewarded  with  the  Schiller  prize  in  1878.  Al- 
though he  was  the  most  gifted  and  the  sanest  dramatist 
of  the  seventies  his  plays  were  not  given  in  the  high- 
class  theatres  because,  without  the  deceiving  brilliance 
of  traditional  and  beautiful  form,  they  delineated  life- 
like characters  from  the  people  and  had  their  origin  in 
the  world  of  the  suburban  theatres  of  Vienna. 

Anzengruber  was  descended  from  the  peasantry  of 
Upper  Austria.  Born  in  Vienna,  Nov.  29,  1839,  at 
five  years  of  age  he  lost  his  father,  himself  a  gifted 
writer,  and  grew  up  in  poor  circumstances  under  the 
care  of  his  mother.  He  tried  to  make  his  way  in  the 
book-trade  but  the  theatre  attracted  him  with  ever- 
increasing  strength  and  for  ten  long  years  from  the 
winter  of  1859  he  wandered  through  the  Austrian  prov- 
inces as  an  actor,  experiencing  on  the  trips  all  the 
misery  connected  with  the  calling  of  a  strolling  come- 
dian. Then  he  found  a  modest  post  in  the  Vienna 
police-office  and  made  up  his  mind  to  give  up  all  am- 
bition to  become  an  artist  and  author,  because  all  his 
efforts  to  find  a  shelter  for  the  children  of  his  muse  had 
been  without  success. 


LUDWIG  ANZENGRUBER  109 

But  just  at  that  time  the  religious  agitation  follow- 
ing the  Vatican  Council  aroused  anew  in  him  the  forci- 
bly repressed  desire  to  create  and  in  1870  he  wrote  Der 
Pfarrer  von  Kirchfeld.  Afterwards  he  gave  up  his 
official  position  and  lived  in  Vienna  as  author  and  jour- 
nalist, unhappily  married,  severely  tried  by  bodily  suf- 
fering, without  obtaining  fitting  recognition  or  the  cor- 
responding material  rewards.  When  his  friends  were 
preparing  to  celebrate  his  fiftieth  birthday  and  when  the 
consciousness  of  his  importance  was  beginning  to  dawn 
upon  larger  circles,  he  fell  ill  and  was  carried  off  by 
sudden  death,  Dec.  10,  1889. 

In  vain  did  Anzengruber  attempt  to  accomplish  any- 
thing in  the  traditional  forms  with  plays  in  iambic  meas- 
ure or  with  middle-class  drama  in  the  High  German. 
His  talents  and  originality  unfolded  only  in  the  environ- 
ment of  dialect,  in  the  peasant-  and  folk-play.  The  peas- 
ant-play had  long  before  become  a  popular  offshoot  of 
lower-class  drama  which,  without  any  artistic  purpose 
and  with  cheap  expedients,  aimed  at  outward  success 
(cf.  p.  54).  With  its  mixture  of  rude  jest  and  melo- 
drama it  served  for  light  entertainment. 

In  Anzengruber  as  in  lofty  drama  the  great  problems 
of  humanity  are  discussed.  The  garments,  in  which  be- 
fore him  only  theatrically  correct  dummies  had  been 
seen,  now  clothe  people  of  such  genuine  nature  that  in 
them  great  tragic  conflicts  can  arise.  He  himself  tells 
at  the  close  of  his  capital  peasant  novel,  Der  Sternstein- 
hof,  why  he  chose  the  peasant  costume.  "This  is  not 
the  result  of  the  simple  belief  that  by  this  means  peas- 
ants are  to  be  won  as  readers,  nor  with  the  speculative 
purpose  of  paying  court  to  a  tendency  that  is  coming 
more  and  more  into  vogue,  but  merely  for  the  reason 


110  GERMAN  DRAMA 

that  the  narrow  sphere  of  action  of  country  life  has  less 
effect  upon  the  naturalness  and  originality  of  the  char- 
acters; that  the  passions,  expressed  without  reserva- 
tion or  but  clumsily  concealed,  are  more  comprehensible, 
and  that  the  evidence  of  how  characters  grow  or  de- 
teriorate under  the  influence  of  destiny,  or  how  they 
fight  against  it  and  decide  their  own  and  others'  fate 
is  easier  to  produce  in  a  mechanism  that  lies  open  to  the 
day,  as  it  were,  than  in  one  enclosed  in  a  double  case, 
covered  over  with  traceries  and  an  ornamental  dial : 
just  as  in  the  oldest,  simplest  and  most  effective  stories 
heroes  and  princes  were  breeders  of  herds  and  land 
owners  and  their  Treasurers  and  Chancellors  swine- 
herds." 

He  understood  most  accurately  the  nature  of  the  folk- 
play  and  would  not  allow  himself  to  be  deprived  of  the 
right  to  reform  and  instruct.  "For  what  does  a  per- 
son work,  pray,"  he  wrote  to  a  friend,  "especially  in 
the  field  of  the  folk-play,  if  he  does  not  wish  to  in- 
struct, to  enlighten  and  to  inspire?  Let  the  tragedian 
and  comedian  of  higher  style  follow  after  the  beautiful 
alone,  after  the  artistic  ideal  without  any  accessories. 
But  the  folk-play  as  far  as  I  know,  have  read  and  seen, 
has  at  all  times,  according  to  the  standard  of  prevail- 
ing opinion,  combined  the  purpose  of  teaching  with  that 
of  entertainment." 

This  tendency  is  always  dominated  in  Anzengruber's 
works  by  the  loftier  search  for  truth.  He  considers 
himself  the  priest  of  a  religion  which  has  only  one  God- 
dess, Truth,  and  only  one  myth,  that  of  the  Golden 
Age,  not  away  back  in  the  past,  an  object  of  vain  dreams 
and  longing, — no!  reaching  into  and  lighting  up  all  the 


LUDWIG  ANZENGRUBER  111 

future,  the  single  goal  of  all  joyous  anticipation  and 
of  all  active  effort." 

For  Anzengruber  truth  is  found  where  goodness  is 
found.  Men  are  bad  if  selfishness  or  prejudice  blinds 
them  or  if  mistaken  reverence  for  old  out-worn  institu- 
tions hinders  their  aspirations  after  freedom,  truth  and 
purity.  According  to  the  degree  of  hurtfulness,  the  bad 
appears  in  the  mirror  of  literature  as  harmless  and  com- 
ical or  pernicious  and  tragic.  In  the  most  of  Anzen- 
gruber's  scenes  both  are  intermingled,  full  of  signifi- 
cance and  mirth-provoking  as  in  life,  in  Shakespeare  and 
in  Moliere. 

In  his  wanderings  he  had  learned  exactly  the  nature 
of  theatrical  effects.  He  satisfied  the  desire  of  the 
actors  for  effective  roles  and  knew  how  to  employ  ac- 
curately all  the  little  stage-expedients.  Of  the  dialect 
of  the  locality  which  is  the  scene  of  his  plays  he 
makes  use  only  so  far  as  it  does  not  prevent  the  man  of 
a  different  part  of  the  country  from  understanding. 
With  justice  Berthold  Auerbach  praises  the  remarkable 
combination  of  natural  and  theatrical  courage  in  An- 
zengruber. 

Outwardly  his  plays  are  similar  to  the  earlier  Aus- 
trian peasant-comedies  and  Vienna  folk-plays,  but  in 
reality  he  made  his  own  forms.  He  knows  only  ex- 
emplars but  no  model,  no  school  but  merely  teachers,  no 
imitation  but  only  a  glad,  free  aspiration.  The  earlier 
authors  always  sketched  the  peasants  and  townspeople 
from  one  side  only  according  as  they  required  them  for 
the  needs  of  the  conflicts  which  had  their  course  in  the 
narrow  circle  of  ordinary  feeling.  Love,  hate,  mag- 
nanimity, avarice,  shrewdness,  narrowness,  each  for  it- 
self and  without  any  personal  coloring,  are  embodied 


112  GERMAN  DRAMA 

and  contrasted  in  definite  figures  and  come  into  out- 
ward collision.  Anzengruber,  on  the  other  hand,  en- 
dowed his  characters  with  a  far  richer  and  more 
complicated  life,  conditioned  by  the  peculiar  nature  of 
each  individual,  which  stood  out  prominently  in  a  super- 
abundance of  special  characteristics.  He  did  not  shut 
his  peasants  off  from  the  world  by  a  range  of  moun- 
tains. Everything  that  was  stirring  in  the  religious, 
social  and  political  life  of  the  present,  made  its  way 
into  the  villages  also  and  there  excited  storms  similar 
to  those  at  the  centres  of  public  life.  But  from  be- 
hind the  storm-clouds  there  shone  out  the  sun  of  a  firm 
belief  in  mankind,  throwing  its  warm  rays  even  into 
the  souls  of  the  unfortunate  and  despised. 

Anzengruber  banished  pessimism.  Almost  every  one 
of  his  dramas  shows  the  way  to  happiness  by  the  exer- 
cise of  firm  courage  and  clear  judgment.  The  solution 
is  affected  as  in  the  old  style  of  folk-play,  that  is,  the 
good  are  rewarded,  the  evil  reformed ;  the  outward  course 
of  the  plot,  however,  is  not  the  cause  of  the  change, 
but  that  inherent  fate  which  purifies  men  and  leads 
them  to  self-knowledge. 

With  great  effectiveness  Anzengruber  unites  universal 
human  qualities  with  class-attributes  and  the  other  for- 
tuitous influences,  so  that  the  effect  of  each  of  the  three 
factors  is  clearly  distinguishable  and  all  in  common 
modify  the  course  of  destiny. 

Because  of  all  these  excellencies,  Anzengruber 's  best 
works  have  a  claim  to  stand  beside  the  writings  of  the 
greatest  dramatists  and  yet  he  will  certainly  not  be 
granted  this  place.  As  the  son  of  a  time  which  was 
hostile  to  the  great,  he  sought  to  veil  what  was  genuine 
and  deep  in  his  work  with  a  touch  of  playfulness ;  he  had 


LUDWIG  ANZENGRUBER  113 

to  represent  himself  as  less  important  than  he  really  was 
and  to  endeavor  to  please  a  perverted  public.  It  was 
Anzengruber 's  misfortune  that  he  tried  this  repeatedly 
and  yet  after  all  retained  so  much  of  his  original  nature 
that  he  did  not  descend  low  enough  for  the  spectators. 
Only  after  his  death  was  his  great  aim  recognised 
through  the  mask  made  necessary  by  his  unhappy  times. 

Up  to  that  time  only  his  first  work,  Der  Pfarrer  von 
Kirch f eld,  had  become  known,  the  great  and  lasting 
success  of  which  was  due  more  to  accident  than  to  the 
real  merit  of  the  play.  It  had  its  origin  in  the  excite- 
ment which  was  stirred  up  in  Catholic  lands  because  of 
the  promulgation  of  the  doctrine  of  infallibility  in 
1870.  With  an  all  too  clearly  outspoken  tendency,  with 
a  pathos  of  a  superficial  theatrical  type,  "Hell,"  the 
priest  with  the  striking  name,  represents  the  cause  of 
enlightenment.  It  was  this  character  with  its  purpose- 
ful sermons  to  the  public  that  had  great  influence  when 
the  play  appeared  and  long  afterwards. 

In  the  episodes  and  in  the  figure  of  "Wurzelsepp" 
the  later  Anzengruber,  who  is  master  of  every  scenic 
detail,  is  already  proclaimed.  "Wurzelsepp"  is  the  first 
of  his  thinking  peasants.  They  are  not  philosophers 
who,  with  trained  reasoning  powers,  look  out  over  life 
from  a  high  watch  tower;  their  thinking  has  its  origin 
in  their  feelings.  Those  of  them  who,  because  of  ille- 
gitimate birth,  are  outcasts  from  the  peasant's  social 
order,  or  who  are  not  willing  to  submit  to  the  restraint 
of  custom  or  dogma,  experience  in  their  own  person 
the  force  of  a  power,  the  justice  of  which  they  do  not 
understand.  Out  of  this  arises  at  first  hatred  and 
embitterment,  but  Anzengruber  scatters  in  the  deep 
furrows  of  the  lacerated  soul  the  seeds  of  a  human  love 


GERMAN  DRAMA 

arid  there  grows  up  a  joy  in  being  and  a  belief  in  the 
goodness  of  the  world-spirit,  revealing  itself  in  nature. 

In  Die  Kreuzelschreiber  (1872),  the  cheerful  com- 
panion-picture to  Der  Pfarrer  von  Kirchfeld,  he  has 
described  this  in  most  masterly  fashion,  in  the  person 
of  Steinklopfer-Hans,  the  best  of  his  village  philoso- 
phers. He  is  armed  against  misfortune  by  the  convic- 
tion of  his  intimate  connection  with  the  everlasting 
Ruler,  who  wisely  guides  all  things  for  the  benefit  of 
the  world.  Therefore  this  world  is  for  him,  the  poor 
and  despised,  a  merry  world.  No  harm  can  befall  him, 
he  belongs  to  the  universal  and  the  universal  to  him. 
In  this  glad  certainty  he  finds  his  solution,  when  the 
peasants,  carried  away  by  the  trend  of  the  times, 
thoughtlessly  rebelled  against  the  church,  and  the 
women,  urged  on  by  the  priest,  thereupon  renounce 
their  marital  duties  until  the  offense  is  atoned  for 
by  a  pilgrimage  to  Rome.  In  these  really  comical  con- 
flicts appeared,  peculiarly  distorted,  the  great  universal 
contrasts:  the  power  of  tradition  against  which  genuine 
aspiration  for  freedom  and  indiscreet  desire  for  innova- 
tion alike  fight  in  vain.  The  farcical  merry  comedy 
is  a  not  unworthy  companion-piece  to  the  Lysistratus 
of  Aristophanes.  The  fate  of  old  Brenninger,  harried 
to  death  by  the  breakdown  of  lifelong  customs,  admon- 
ishes one  of  the  deep  seriousness  underlying  the  bright 
play. 

While  Anzengruber  also  attempted  in  Der  Pfarrer 
von  Kirchfeld  to  give  the  peasant  play  greater  value 
by  an  outspoken  didactic  tendency,  he  now  took  the 
right  way  to  raise  the  class  into  the  domain  of  genuine 
art  by  giving  greater  depth  to  the  conflicts,  by  describ- 
ing the  circumstances  which  decide  them  and  by  a  more 


LUDWIG  ANZENGRUBER  115 

detailed  characterization.  At  the  same  time  his  courage 
for  truth  had  grown  very  considerably.  His  first  play, 
for  the  sake  of  theatrical  conventionalities,  had  still 
carefully  avoided  everything  objectionable  and  shunned 
the  little  traits  serving  merely  to  give  an  impression 
of  complete  fidelity  to  life,  because  the  prevailing  theory 
of  art  banished  from  the  drama  all  naturalistic  descrip- 
tion as  well  as  everything  accidental  and  unimportant 
for  the  outward  course  of  the  action.  Now  he  fairly 
revelled  in  the  accurate  observation  of  these  details 
and  the  great  brawl  at  the  close  of  the  third  act  gave 
evidence  for  the  first  time  on  the  German  stage  of  the 
power  of  an  art  opposed  to  the  old  ideals  of  beauty. 

Anzengruber  had  prepared  the  transition  to  this  new 
art  in  his  second  work,  Der  Meineidbauer  (1871).  Like 
Shakespeare's  Richard  III,  Matthias  Ferner,  the  cross- 
roads-farmer, had  risen  by  crime  and  maintained  his 
high  position  with  unfeeling  harshness  by  means  of  new 
crimes.  He  is  in  his  way  just  as  great  a  man  as 
the  royal  murderer  of  Britain  and,  like  him,  with  brazen 
front  opposes  avenging  fate,  which  naturally  employs 
in  this  play  meaner  and  more  objectionable  devices  than 
in  the  great  tragedy. 

In  the  speech  and  manners  of  the  characters  of  the 
Meimeidbauer  there  is  still  a  good  deal  that  is  conven- 
tional, but  the  technique  is  remarkably  new,  lifting 
gradually  one  veil  after  another  from  the  past,  so  that 
along  with  men  and  things  from  the  present  their  evo- 
lution with  its  conditioning  causes  becomes  clear.  The 
impression  of  compulsory  necessity  which  is  thus  called 
forth  permits  one  to  see  more  easily  the  sway  of  chance 
in  the  last  stages  of  the  action  which  are  transferred 
to  the  stage. 


116  GERMAN  DRAMA 

Anzengruber  again  gave  the  serious  picture  of  the 
Meineidbauer  a  cheery  companion  when  in  1874  he 
composed  Der  G'wissenswurm.  Here  there  is  also  a 
criminal  who,  however,  allows  himself  to  be  tormented 
by  qualms  of  conscience  instead  of  stifling  them,  like 
Der  Meineidbauer,  until  it  is  shown  that  his  worries 
are  only  imaginary  and  artificially  nourished  by  a  self- 
ish, legacy-hunting  hypocrite.  The  meeting  with  his 
former  loved  one,  whom  he  had  thought  wretched  and 
ruined,  and  whom  he  now  finds  again,  abounding  in 
strength  and  contented  as  the  mother  of  twelve  chil- 
dren, is  a  capital  invention  of  the  poet;  so  also  the 
true-hearted  girl  who,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  she 
knows  neither  father  nor  mother,  has  such  a  joyous 
outlook  on  life. 

The  purest  embodiment  of  the  joy  of  life  among 
Anzengruber 's  work  is  the  peasant- farce,  Doppelselbst- 
mord  (1875),  a  worthy  dramatic  companion-piece  to 
Keller's  short  story  Romeo  und  Julia  auf  dem  Darfe. 
The  son  of  the  rich  man  loves  the  daughter  of  the 
poor  man  and  they  go  to  the  "Aim  to  be  united  for- 
ever." The  double  sense  of  these  words  leads  the 
father  of  the  lad  and  the  other  villagers  astray  and 
all  night  they  hunt  anxiously  for  the  fugitives.  With 
their  mistake  vanish  also  all  hostile  feelings. 

Love  in  the  abstract,  shy  and  awkward  of  expression, 
is  revealed  in  the  youthful  couple.  It  is  true  poetry 
without  all  the  beautiful  words  and  metaphors  esteemed 
necessary  by  earlier  writers.  Their  place  is  taken  by 
inherent  beauty,  which  bursts  forth  out  of  a  rough  shell, 
and  most  touchingly  where  life  itself  has  made  it  hard, 
as  is  the  case  with  the  old  carriage-jobber,  the  father 
of  the  girl,  who  with  his  words  "'s  is  a  DummJieit" 


LUDWIG  ANZENGRUBER  117 

(it's  all  nonsense)  pretends  to  take  no  real  interest 
in  things,  while  at  the  same  time  his  heart  is  full  of  love 
and  sympathy.  Never  did  Anzengruber  combine  so 
intimately  as  in  this  play  the  mixture  of  love  of  life 
and  life's  seriousness,  the  tragic  contrasts  of  the  true 
world  and  its  diverting  superficial  manners.  Yet  suc- 
cess was  denied  him.  Prudery,  according  to  August 
Wilhelrn  Schlegel  "the  pretention  to  innocence  without 
innocence,"  took  offence  at  the  naivete  of  the  farce. 
Anzengruber  himself  was  partly  to  blame  for  that, 
because  he  yielded  so  far  to  the  demands  of  the  ordinary 
public  that  it  might  be  thought  the  poet  himself  had 
wished  to  pander  to  depraved  tastes  in  the  choice  of 
his  subject. 

The  very  same  is  true  of  his  next  farces  which 
are  furnished  with  a  little  less  juicy  heart,  Der  ledige 
Hof  (1876),  which  sacrifices  a  tragic  and  grand  woman 
character  to  the  purpose  of  providing  merriment  at  all 
costs,  's  Jungferngift  (1878),  and  Die  Trutzige  (1878). 

Through  lack  of  success  the  poet  became  uncertain. 
Even  before  this  he  had  tried  to  leave  his  own  field 
for  that  of  higher-class  drama,  e.  g.,  in  Elfriede  (1872), 
Bertha  von  Frankreich  (1872-74),  Die  Tochter  des 
Wucherers  (1873)  and  Ein  Faustschlag  (1877).  In 
them  he  aimed  at  presenting  characters  from  the  people 
in  the  midst  of  the  bustle  of  the  large  city,  by  which  they 
are  estranged  from  nature.  The  cheery,  unassuming 
lower  classes  of  old  Vienna,  whose  portrait  Raimund  had 
once  placed  before  their  very  eyes,  were  dying  out.  A 
new  race  was  growing  up,  without  the  feeling  of  class- 
honor,  without  energy  of  endeavor,  anxiously  pursuing 
mere  enjoyment.  Modest  competency,  respectability  and 
the  religious  sense  vanished  when  the  ethical  foundation 


118  GERMAN  DRAMA 

was  gone  from  beneath  their  feet.  The  commandment, 
"Honor  thy  father  and  thy  mother,"  loses  its  validity 
when  the  parents  are  not  worthy  of  reverence.  Anzen- 
gruber's  Viertes  Gebot  (1877)  shows  this  by  one  ex- 
ample each  from  the  lower  and  upper  classes,  from 
the  family  of  the  lazy  turner  Schalanter  and  of  the 
rich  landlord  Hutterer.  In  both  the  daughters  are 
sold,  the  sons  spoiled  by  their  education  and  only  where 
good  old  customs  watch  faithfully  over  the  children 
does  parental  love  become  a  blessing  to  them.  Not 
only  morally  but  physically  the  new  generation  is  being 
ruined  by  the  sins  of  the  old.  Anzengruber  represents 
all  this  in  a  plot,  which  occupies  a  remarkable  middle- 
place  between  the  old  folk-play  with  its  rich  external 
happenings  but  poor  argumentation,  and  the  new  psy- 
chological drama  which  is  poor  in  plot.  Scenes  of 
strong  and  affecting  fidelity  to  nature  alternate  with 
others  full  of  sentimental  bliss  and  false  pathos.  In- 
stead of  one  simple  straight  plot  we  see  three  running 
along  side  by  side,  crossing  one  another  only  at  certain 
points  as  chance  may  offer.  A  style  in  which  to  rep- 
resent the  inherent  necessity  of  the  incidents  had  not 
yet  been  found  but  the  beginnings  of  it  are  mighty 
enough  to  cause  an  unusually  potent  influence  to  pro- 
ceed from  the  work.  Its  independence  in  the  face  of 
the  prevailing  hypocritical  morality,  its  attack  upon  the 
absolute  nature  of  one  of  the  Ten  Commandments,  and 
its  detailed  description  of  the  depraved  were,  however, 
for  Das  vierte  Gebot  greater  hindrances  on  the  stage 
than  its  own  organic  weakness.  And  yet  it  is  easy 
to  see  that  the  poet  did  not  allow  the  lower  instincts 
to  rule  absolutely  because  of  joy  in  what  was  ugly. 
His  fharacters  are  not  blindly  given  over  to  one  des- 
tiny, their  fate  is  not  conditioned  by  natural  law,  edu- 


LUDWIG  ANZENGRUBER  119 

cation  or  society.  A  firm  will  and  a  joyous  faith  in 
goodness  can  lift  them  out  of  vice  and  misery.  This 
conviction  is  clearly  set  forth  in  the  three  less  im- 
portant Vienna  plays  by  Anzengruber,  Die  alien  Wiener 
(1878),  Brave  Lent'  vom  Grund  (1879),  and  Heimge- 
funden  (1885). 

Anzengruber  then  returned  once  more  to  his  old 
field  in  his  last  drama,  Der  Fleck  auf  der  Ehr'  (1877). 
An  innocent  peasant  girl  has  come  under  suspicion 
of  theft  and  is  ruined  because  the  sense  of  honor  of 
her  class  count  the  suspicion  which  brought  her  to  prison 
as  an  inexpiable  sin.  As  with  the  "children  of  sin" 
of  his  earlier  works,  so  here  we  find  a  fate  which 
destroys  happiness  where  no  guilt  is  present  and  only 
outwardly  is  a  happy  ending  brought  about  by  an 
improbable  accident.  The  poet's  accuracy  in  the  use 
of  technical  devices  can  not  delude  one  into  overlooking 
the  poverty  of  material  and  the  inconsistency  of  the 
solution. 

The  last  plays  by  Anzengruber  prove  that  through 
constant  battling  with  the  decadent  dramatic  art  of 
his  day,  he  had  become  discouraged  and  had  lost  his 
nai've  freedom  in  creative  work.  It  is  idle  to  ask 
whether  he  would  have  found  it  again,  if  a  share  had 
been  granted  him  in  the  fresh  goodwill  which  in  the 
very  year  of  his  death  was  directed  to  that  serious 
drama  which  was  aiming  to  get  away  from  tradition 
and  make  an  advance. 


120  GERMAN  DRAMA 

THE  MEININGER 

In  the  year  1880  Anzengruber  cried  plaintively,  "We 
have  no  longer  a  stage,"  and  certainly  he  had  a  right 
to  this  crushing  judgment  when  he  glanced  at  the  doings 
of  the  regular  German  theatres.  Their  activity  was 
governed  by  hollow  idealism  and  ordinary  business- 
sense.  But  in  two  different  directions  the  desire  to 
make  improvements  had  already  been  made  manifest  in 
deeds  and  with  convincing  success:  on  the  circuits  of 
the  Meininger  and  in  Richard  Wagner's  Bayreuth  fes- 
tival-plays. 

In  May,  1874,  the  court  players  of  the  Duke  of 
Meiningen  began  their  first  "starring"  in  Berlin  with 
the  performance  of  Julius  Ccesar.  The  surprising  im- 
pression made  by  this  drama,  long  known  and  natural- 
ized on  the  stage,  was  due  to  the  carrying  through  of 
this  one  principle ;  everything  to  be  subordinated  to  the 
purposes  of  the  poet  and  these  to  be  realized  by  sum- 
moning all  the  devices  of  dramatic  art  and  of  modern 
stage-technique.  The  result  of  this  was  first,  outwardly 
the  most  conscientious  observance  of  historical  setting 
in  scenery  and  costumes.  With  such  care  and  such 
great  expense  as  had  up  to  that  time  been  expended 
on  the  opera  alone,  the  Meininger  provided  for  each 
individual  drama  a  suitable  artistic  setting  and  by  this 
means  gave  a  new  sensuous  charm  to  the  classic  plays. 
The  fear  that,  because  of  extrinsic  brilliancy,  attention 
would  be  diverted  from  the  work  itself,  was  very  soon 
proven  false,  because  it  was  shown  that  dramas  of  ideal 
type  were  brought  nearer  to  the  interest  and  understand- 
ing of  the  present  by  this  very  realistic  and  faithful 
historic  background. 


THE  MEININGER  121 

The  second  important  innovation  of  the  Meininger 
was  that  of  driving  out  the  "Star"  system.  All  actors, 
from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  had  to  place  themselves 
unreservedly  at  the  service  of  the  whole  artistic  pro- 
duction, which  by  oneness  of  purpose  grew  out  of  drama, 
performance  and  scenery.  No  one  might  refuse  to  take 
over  the  smallest  role.  The  performance  of  each  indi- 
vidual actor  was  brought  to  the  greatest  perfection  in 
numberless  rehearsals  by  the  conductor  of  the  play,  the 
Duke  of  Meiningen  himself,  and  then  with  those  of 
the  other  actors  and  of  the  carefully  trained  troops 
of  supernumeraries  blended  together  to  a  complete  unit 
with  just  as  indefatigable  labor. 

This  hitherto  unknown  conscientiousness  was  above 
all  of  great  advantage  to  Schiller's  dramas,  the  playing 
of  which  had  been  quite  neglected.  They  gained  a  new 
and  unexpected  influence.  The  passionate  energy  of 
the  great  mass-scenes  of  Die  Rauber,  of  Fiesco,  of 
Wattenstein  and  of  Die  Jungfrau  von  Orleans  had  never 
up  to  that  time  been  felt  so  strongly,  the  structure  of 
the  dramatic  framework  never  so  clearly  seen  and  ad- 
mired in  its  artistic  completeness.  No  longer  the 
brilliant  showpieces,  the  great  monologues,  but  the  hith- 
erto unnoticed  ensemble-scenes  which  develop  the  real 
dramatic  elements  appeared  as  the  climaxes. 

For  seventeen  years,  from  1874-1890,  the  Meininger 
travelled  through  Germany  and  a  number  of  other 
countries,  giving  in  this  period  41  plays  and  2,591 
performances.  They  displayed  their  new  art  most  suc- 
cessfully in  Schiller's  and  Shakespeare's  dramas,  but 
did  not  shun  the  modern  writers,  as  their  experiments 
with  various  works  by  Ibsen,  Bjornson,  Lindner,  Fitger 
and  Echegaray  give  proof. 


122  GERMAN  DRAMA 

When  they  gave  up  their  trips  their  mission  was 
fulfilled.  The  new  dramatic  art  had  become  the  com- 
mon property  of  all  theatres  making  any  claim  to  artis- 
tic rank.  True,  only  rarely  indeed  was  there  to  be 
found  the  same  lofty  seriousness,  the  same  expenditure 
of  time  and  means  and  the  same  capacity  for  personal 
self-sacrifice  as  with  them;  besides,  the  conditions  of 
the  regular  theatres  scarcely  ever  allowed  of  such  in- 
tense attention  to  one  work.  At  the  same  time  the  right 
relation  of  the  individual  factors  of  dramatic  art  were 
once  more  restored.  The  author  was  again  given  the 
chief  place,  the  conductor  took  his  place  beside  him  as 
his  representative  and  interpreter,  and  the  selfishness, 
vanity  and  laziness  of  the  actors,  as  well  as  the  business- 
sense  of  the  directors,  had  to  be  subordinate  to  both. 
So  far  as  means  at  all  permitted,  the  public  and  critics 
now  demanded  a  faithful  observance  of  historic  truth, 
a  conscientious  study  of  each  individual  role  and  well 
rounded  ensemble-play. 

Not  only  was  new  life  breathed  into  the  masterpieces 
of  old  style  by  these  principles,  but  the  stage  could  now 
offer  to  writers  trying  other  roads  actors  who  were  more 
tractable  and  better  trained  for  their  duties. 


RICHARD  WAGNER 

The  fundamental  thought  that  all  arts  must  work 
together  in  the  service  of  the  writer  in  order  to  obtain 
the  greatest  effect  for  a  drama  had  been  uttered  by 
RICHARD  WAGNER  long  before  the  appearance  of  the 
Meininger  and  was  overwhelmingly  and  grandly  ex- 
emplified when  under  his  guidance  his  Ring  des  Nibel- 
ungcn  was  first  performed  in  1876  at  Bayreuth. 


RICHARD  WAGNER  123 

In  1813,  E.  T.  A.  Hoffmann  wrote  an  essay  entitled 
Der  Dichter  wnd  der  Komponist  in  which  he  expressed 
the  conviction  that  Romantic  opera  is  the  only  true 
opera,  because  the  music  must  necessarily  have  its  origin 
directly  in  the  poetry,  and  that,  because  of  these  con- 
ditions, musical  drama  must  originate  as  the  work  of 
a  gifted  and  really  romantic  poet.  "I  maintain,"  he 
says  in  this  essay,  "that  the  opera  writer,  just  as  well 
as  the  musician,  must  compose  everything  as  it  were 
in  his  soul  and  it  is  only  the  clear  consciousness  of 
certain  melodies,  indeed  of  certain  tones  of  the  accom- 
panying instruments,  in  a  word,  the  easy  command 
of  the  spiritual  field  of  tones  which  distinguishes  the 
latter  from  the  former." 

In  the  same  year  in  which  these  words  were  written, 
as  if  meant  for  him,  Richard  Wagner  was  born  at 
Leipzig,  May  22,  1813.  In  Dresden  he  conceived  an 
admiration  for  Weber,  then  at  Leipzig  felt  the  influence 
of  the  French  and  Italian  music  fashionable  there.  Its 
sentiment,  happy  even  to  frenzy  and  to  sensual  frivolity, 
appealed  to  his  strong  physical  nature  and  in  the  style 
of  Auber  and  Bellini,  after  some  imitative  attempts, 
he  wrote  in  1834  his  opera,  Das  Liebesverbot  oder  die 
Novize  von  Palermo,  after  Shakespeare's  Measure  for 
Measure.  In  the  very  same  style  as  ' '  Young  Germany, ' ' 
he  glorifies  the  victory  of  free  sensuousness  over  pu- 
ritanical hypocrisy.  Wagner  was  at  that  time  friendly 
with  Heinrich  Laube  and  in  his  Zeitung  fur  die  elegante 
Welt  he  expressed  for  the  first  time  his  requirements 
from  the  German  opera. 

Then  followed  years  of  travel,  full  of  wretchedness 
until  he  found  a  permanent  position  as  bandmaster  at 
Riga  (1837-39).  For  his  great  artistic  views  and  his 


124  GERMAN  DRAMA 

liberal  political  ideas  he  sought  artistic  expression  in 
the  opera,  Reinzi,  der  letzte  der  Tribunen,  the  material 
for  which  he  took  from  Bulwer-Lytton 's  novel.  The 
false  brilliancy  of  Meyerbeer's  art  had  dazzled  him, 
too,  in  those  days  so  that  he  tried  to  imitate  its  outward 
form.  But  the  accuracy  and  conciseness  of  the  dramatic 
construction,  the  genuine  passion  and  the  poetic  thought 
of  the  opera  distinguishes  his  work  from  the  cool,  cal- 
culating "grand  opera"  of  the  French  and  Italians. 

In  vain  did  Wagner  hope,  when  he  went  to  Paris  in 
1840,  to  get  his  Rienzi  performed  by  Meyerbeer's  aid 
and  he  suffered  great  distress.  At  this  time  he  turned 
away  from  this  false  art  which  he  now  attacked  in 
numerous  essays  after  the  style  of  E.  T.  A.  Hoffmann. 
He  became  again  a  German  Romanticist  and  Der 
fliegende  Hollander,  which  took  form  in  1841  at  Meudon, 
followed  Weber  and  Marschner  directly,  especially  Der 
Vampyr  and  Hans  Heiling.  He  saturated  the  simple 
thrilling  legend,  acquaintance  with  which  he  owes  to 
Heinriche  Heine,  with  the  opposing  principles  of  sensual 
love  and  of  sympathy  which  impels  to  an  expiatory 
death  in  behalf  of  the  lover.  Like  the  ballads  of  the 
northern  people,  the  opera  is  a  string  of  single,  quickly 
passing,  garishly  illumined  pictures,  which  gleam  up 
like  ghosts  before  the  dark  background  of  a  mysterious 
fate. 

In  1842  Wagner  returned  to  Germany  and  Tann- 
hauser  took  form  in  Dresden  in  1843-45.  Tieck  had 
already  connected  the  story  of  the  old  Tannhauser  poem 
with  the  legend  of  Der  getreue  Eckart,  Hoffmann  with 
that  of  the  SangerJcrieg  on  the  Wartburg.  Heinrich 
Heine,  in  his  parody  of  the  old  poem,  had  endowed 


RICHARD  WAGNER  125 

Tannhauser  with  the  longing  which  drives  him  out  of 
the  joys  of  the  Venus-mountain  back  to  earth. 

Influenced  by  Hoffmann  and  Heine,  Richard  Wagner, 
by  an  effective  change  of  the  closing  part,  added  the 
moral,  religious  and  redeeming  power  of  a  pure  virgin's 
love  and  gave  it  form  in  the  fictitious  character  of  the 
prince's  daughter,  to  whom  he  gave  the  name  of  St. 
Elizabeth.  Thus  out  of  the  old  opera  which  appealed 
only  to  the  senses  there  was  made  a  problem-drama 
which  enlists  music  in  the  service  of  spiritual  develop- 
ment. 

This  happened  in  a  still  greater  degree  in  Lohengrin, 
composed  immediately  afterwards.  Here,  too,  the  old 
legend  is  filled  with  a  new  content:  Elsa's  love  askS 
from  the  unknown,  for  whom  she  feels  admiration  and 
gratitude,  that  she  may  know  him  fully  in  order  to 
devote  herself  entirely  to  him;  but  the  god  dare  not 
reveal  himself  to  the  mortal  woman,  else  she  would 
die  under  his  glance.  As  Semele  is  destroyed  by  her 
wish  to  see  Jupiter  in  his  divine  majesty,  so  Elsa  is 
destroyed  by  the  loftiest  of  desires,  having  its  founda- 
tion in  the  essence  of  love. 

Weber's  Euryanthe  had  given  the  models  for  the 
characterization  of  the  gloomy  figures  Ortrud  and 
Telramund,  the  great  court-scene  in  Marschner's  Der 
Tempter  und  die  Jiidin  had  a  great  influence  on  the 
first  act,  the  quarrel  between  the  queens  in  the  Nibel- 
ungen-epic  gave  the  principal  motive  and  many  details 
for  the  great  scene  of  the  bridal  procession.  And  yet 
as  a  whole  the  opera  was  the  spiritual  property  of 
Wagner  and  gave  evidence  of  his  independence  in  all 
essential  points,  his  lofty  view  of  the  work  of  a  drama- 


126  GERMAN  DRAMA 

tist  and  the  ability,  shown  by  no  one  before  him,  to 
combine  the  devices  of  music  and  of  poetry  in  the 
service  of  this  work. 

The  complete  break  with  the  old  rigid  forms  of 
music  was  now  accomplished.  The  declamation  was 
not  hindered  by  the  melody  but  rather  increased  in 
effectiveness  to  the  loftiest  possibility  of  dramatic  ex- 
pression, the  combinations  of  moods  and  the  succession 
of  thoughts  were  disclosed  in  the  orchestra,  what  is 
unexpressed  and  inexpressible  stood  revealed.  There 
resulted  a  new  management  and  interweaving  of  melo- 
dies, the  understanding  of  which  was  difficult  for  the 
untrained  ear  and  the  sensuous  beauty  of  which  was 
not  apparent  at  the  first  hearing. 

For  this  reason  Wagner's  new  style  was  at  first  re- 
jected with  ridicule  and  anger  by  the  great  majority 
of  musicians  and  laymen  and  it  was  a  bold  act  when 
his  faithful  friend  Franz  Liszt  produced  Lohengrin 
for  the  first  time  in  Weimar,  Aug.  28,  1850.  From  the 
place  which  had  witnessed  the  rebirth  of  higher-class 
drama  began  the  victorious  march  of  German  opera. 
Schiller's  hopes  were  fulfilled,  that  out  of  the  opera, 
as  out  of  the  choruses  of  the  old  Bacchus-festival, 
tragedy  would  develop  in  a  nobler  form. 

Wagner  was  not  concerned  merely  about  the  purifica- 
tion of  the  musical  part.  Like  Hebbel  he  desired  to 
make  the  drama  the  image  of  the  inner  world  of  the 
poet  and  the  receptacle  of  the  loftiest  and  deepest  im- 
pulses of  the  present,  to  combine  philosophical,  political 
and  social  purposes.  Music  was  to  him  only  a  means  to 
help  give  expression  to  the  unconscious  and  to  increase 
the  power  of  the  senses  to  give  impressions.  There- 
fore he  could,  as  he  went  on,  think  of  dispensing  with 


RICHARD  WAGNER  127 

this  aid  and  plan  spoken  dramas,  like  Friedrich  der 
Rotbart,  Jesus  von  Nazareth,  Wieland  der  Schmied  and 
Acliilleus,  which  were  not  indeed  completed  because 
mighty  influences  soon-  directed  him  once  more  to  the 
opera. 

Wagner  took  part  in  the  Revolution  of  1849  in  the 
belief  that  through  it  his  artistic  purposes  would  be 
furthered.  He  had  to  flee  and  the  following  years  of 
banishment  were  given  to  the  philosophical  foundation 
and  superstructure  of  his  views  on  art.  He  had  found 
his  guide  in  the  philosopher  Ludwig  Feuerbach.  Ac- 
cording to  him  religion  originated  in  the  desire  for 
happiness;  the  gods  were  the  reflected  images  of  men, 
the  ideals  of  the  people  who  gave  them  form.  This 
theory  had  a  mighty  influence  upon  Wagner,  just  as 
it  had  on  Gottfried  Keller,  for  it  recognized  joyously 
and  consciously  the  truth  of  sense-perception  and  ex- 
tolled death  as  the  last  and  greatest  right  of  the  living, 
the  real  conclusion  of  existence.  Hostile  to  Christian 
dogma,  he  took  refuge  in  the  antique  world  of  beauty 
which  Anselm  Feuerbach,  Ludwig 's  brother,  had  de- 
scribed in  his  book,  Der  Vatikanische  Apollo. 

He  did  not,  however,  look  at  this  depraved  world  with 
fruitless  complaints  about  a  lost  ideal  but  with  a  strong 
desire  to  cause  a  new  humanity  to  arise  which  should 
be  worthy  of  it.  In  antique  tragedy  he  saw  the  reflex 
of  a  free  people  fully  developed  in  all  directions.  Here 
all  the  arts,  plastic,  mimic  and  rhetorical,  work  together 
to  the  highest  aims.  Through  Christianity,  as  Wagner 
at  that  time  supposed,  mankind  had  fallen  into  slavery ; 
Art,  in  the  service  of  the  church,  of  princes  and  of 
industry,  had  degenerated  to  handicraft  and  now  served 
only  the  few  as  a  sensual  enjoyment  and  luxury.  Only 


128  GERMAN  DRAMA 

when  at  some  future  time  the  great  revolution  of  man- 
kind has  uprooted  slavery  in  every  form,  can  the  re- 
birth of  the  drama  take  place.  In  this  Kunstwerk  der 
Zukunft,  the  sole  subject  of  which  is  a  beautiful  and 
strong  humanity,  which  has  attained  to  freedom  by  the 
loftiest  power  of  love,  all  the  individual  arts  are  most 
intimately  connected  as  in  classic  tragedy.  It  appeals 
to  the  whole  people  out  of  whose  life  in  common  it  had 
its  issue  as  the  loftiest  intellectual  production.  "Wagner 
developed  these  thoughts  in  a  number  of  works  written 
in  Zurich,  viz:  Kunst  und Klima  (1850),  Das  Kunstwerk 
ch  r  Zukunft  (1850),  Oper  und  Drama  (1851). 

Even  before  this  he  had  written  the  drama  which, 
on  a  national  basis,  embodied  this  idea  and  also  th? 
means  for  its  realization.  In  the  year  1848  Siegfrieds 
Tod  was  written,  in  1851  its  sunny  companion-picture, 
Der  junge  Siegfried,  appeared,  and  in  the  following  year 
Wagner  wrote,  first  Walk u re  and  then  Rhcingold,  be- 
eause  of  the  necessity  of  developing  independently  the 
mythical  and  philosophical  foundations  of  the  action. 
After  Siegfrieds  Tod  had  been  remodelled  into  Gotter- 
dammerung,  to  fit  in  with  the  three  other  plays  in 
preparation,  "Wagner  had  the  principal  work  printed 
for  his  friends  towards  the  end  of  1852.  He  called  it 
Der  Ring  des  Xibelungen,  ein  Biihnenfestspiel  fur  drei 
Tage  und  einen  Vorabend.  The  music  of  Rheingold 
was  already  finished  in  1854,  Walkure  in  the  beginning 
of  1856,  but  in  the  middle  of  Siegfried,  in  1857,  work 
ceased  and  only  after  a  long  pause  was  it  completed  in 
1869,  and  Die  Gotterdammerung  in  1874.  In  his  work, 
Die  Nibelungen,  which  appeared  in  the  same  decade, 
Hebbel  had  used  almost  exclusively  the  German  folk- 
epic  as  his  source,  but  Wagner  gave  the  northern  version 


RICHARD  WAGNER  129 

of  the  Edda  commanding  consideration.  Out  of  it  he 
tried  to  extract  the  essence  of  the  old  legend  and  con- 
ceived of  it  as  mythical  and  not  historical.  He  con- 
sidered Siegfried  synonymous  with  the  Germanic  god 
Baldur  whose  death  symbolizes  the  destruction  of  the 
world.  It  must  be  destroyed  because  the  greed  for  pos- 
session and  power  has  become  dominant  and  has  also 
ensnared  and  poisoned  the  representatives  of  purity, 
Wotan  and  the  Lichtalben.  Their  ending  is  prepared 
for  them  by  the  dark  Nibelungs  and  in  vain  does  Wotan 
beget  for  himself  Siegmund,  the  hero  who  shall  conquer 
the  enemy.  Siegfried  alone,  not  begotten  by  the  guilt- 
laden  god,  but  a  free  innocent  man,  is  able  to  snatch 
away  the  ring,  the  symbol  of  power  and  possession,  from 
the  guardian  dragon.  But  he  also  becomes  involved  in 
guilt  through  Hagen,  the  son  of  Nibelung,  and  with 
him  is  destroyed  Brunhild,  the  daughter  of  the  god, 
who  in  her  selfishness  wishes  to  live  only  for  her  love. 
Walhall,  the  citadel  of  the  gods,  flashes  up  in  flames 
and  the  ring  is  given  back  to  the  daughters  of  the  Rhine, 
from  whom  Nibelung  had  once  stolen  his  gold.  The 
great  wealth  of  thought  and  the  dramatic  significance 
of  the  ring  lift  the  drama  into  the  domain  of  genuine 
and  lofty  tragedy,  but  the  whimsical  outer  form  of 
the  senselessly  applied  alliteration,  the  purposely  archaic 
language,  distorted  by  countless  puns  and  the  tendency 
to  extended  expositions,  which  do  not  advance  the  dra- 
matic action,  detract  from  the  artistic  merit.  The 
characterization  also  is  often  weakened  by  the  symbolic 
conception  of  the  figures. 

At  the  close  of  the  Ring  the  sin-laden  world  goes 
down  to  destruction  and  finds  peace  in  ruin.  This  cor- 
responds to  the  new  views  which  Wagner  had  come  to 


130  GERMAN  DRAMA 

independently  and  had  found  confirmed  in  the  philoso- 
phy of  Schopenhauer.  His  lack  of  success  in  his  efforts 
and  the  necessity  of  giving  up  his  relation  to  the  high- 
minded  Mathilde  Wesendonk  had  driven  him  to  pessi- 
mism, all  hope  in  the  future  had  vanished  and  the  thought 
of  contempt  for  and  victory  over  the  world  was  a  de- 
liverance for  him.  Everything  in  his  earlier  works  he 
now  declared  to  be  the  product  of  a  very  abnormal 
condition  and  from  the  view-point  of  this  new  world 
philosophy  he  composed  Tristan  und  Isolde  (1854),  the 
"song  of  songs"  of  a  love  perfected  in  death. 

Once  more  the  legend  became  the  receptacle  of  his 
personal  view-point.  In  the  epic  of  Tristan  and  Isolde 
Gottfried  von  Strassburg  had  extolled  the  good  fortune 
of  a  "love  of  high  degree"  and  surrounded  it  with  the 
richest  fullness  of  life.  Wagner  extracted  from  it  the 
fundamental  tragic  motives,  the  unconquerable  desire 
for  the  woman  whom  Tristan  has  wooed  for  his  lord  and 
father's  friend,  with  the  determination  to  give  up  his 
own  claim  to  her.  The  magic  love-potion  does  not 
awaken  their  love.  On  the  contrary,  both  had  felt 
from  the  very  beginning  that  they  were  destined  for 
one  another;  they  do  not  intend  treason  but  a  mortal 
longing  is  the  torment  which  they  suffer.  The  number 
of  external  incidents  is  here  limited  to  those  absolutely 
necessary,  so  that  the  fundamental  lyric  feelings  may 
have  complete  course.  The  poet  revels  in  them  and 
spreads  over  them  all  the  charms  of  lofty  poetry  into 
which  the  contemplative  is  this  time  completely  merged. 

Not  for  long  could  Wagner's  active  and  really  joyous, 
sensuous  nature  remain  in  this  state  of  pessimism. 
When  in  the  summer  of  1860  he  returned  to  Germany 


RICHARD  WAGNER  131 

and  could  look  with  more  confidence  into  the  future, 
he  worked  out  an  old  plan  of  his  Dresden  days  and 
wrote  in  1862  his  Meistersinger  von  Nurnberg. 

The  peaceful  German  Imperial  city,  filled  with  genu- 
ine cheeriness,  in  which  Hans  Sachs  had  written,  be- 
came the  scene  of  a  capital  comedy.  The  antagonism 
between  a  limited  philistine  art  and  gifted  creative  work 
is  embodied  most  happily  in  the  school-laws  of  the 
tablature,  restored  true  to  history,  and  in  the  independ- 
ent song  of  Walther  von  Stolzing.  Without  obtrusive- 
ness  the  poet  also  gave  free  course  to  his  disgust  with 
his  opponents.  Unaffected  by  these  purposes,  the  char- 
acters unfold  and  are  full  of  life,  while  the  course  of 
the  happily  invented  love-intrigue  is  intimately  con- 
nected with  the  clash  of  view-points  in  art. 

When  Wagner  had  finished  the  musical  composition 
for  this  work  in  1867,  there  was  already  looming  up, 
through  a  surprising  intervention  of  destiny,  an  early 
prospect  of  the  fulfilment  of  his  boldest  plans  which 
up  to  that  time  had  seemed  unattainable.  The  young 
king  of  Bavaria,  Ludwig  II,  showed  him  his  favor  and, 
with  the  aid  of  a  rapidly  increasing  host  of  enthusiastic 
supporters,  he  was  able  to  build  his  festival-theatre 
in  Bayreuth,  where,  far  from  "the  daily  round,"  the 
drama,  by  a  new  art  of  presentation  and  under  a  pure 
and  ideal  fostering  care,  was  to  awaken  an  exaltation 
and  enthusiasm  worthy  of  its  high  calling. 

In  the  presence  of  the  German  emperor  and  of  a 
number  of  princes,  the  Ring  des  Nibelungen  was  given 
here  for  the  first  time  in  August,  1876,  and  in  defiance 
to  the  slack  and  degenerate  spirit  of  the  times  won 
a  success,  which,  exerting  a  continuous  influence  even 


132  GERMAN  DRAMA 

beyond  German  boundaries,  has  given  an  impulse  to 
the  purification  of  the  artistic  spirit  and  to  a  revolt 
from  the  frivolity  of  the  old  opera. 

In  continual  conflict  with  the  "business"  sense,  with 
indolence  and  the  encouragement  of  search  after  low 
pleasure,  the  mightiest  factors  in  the  life  of  the  regular 
theatres,  Bayreuth,  even  since  the  death  of  Wagner, 
holds  high  the  banner  of  the  practice  of  pure  art,  and 
for  it  fortunately  the  last  and  profoundest  work  of  the 
master,  Der  Parsifal  (1882),  has  up  to  the  present 
been  reserved. 

In  Parsifal  pessimism  has  become  clarified  to  sympa- 
thy and  there  appears  a  new  ideal  for  the  future,  an 
ethical  regeneration  of  the  world  by  a  recognition  of 
its  woes.  The  most  thoughtful  poem  of  the  German 
Middle  Ages,  Wolfram  von  Eschenbach's  Parcival,  is 
here,  as  was  Gottfried  von  Strassburg's  Tristan  in 
the  former  opera,  carried  back  to  its  simplest  elements 
and  over  it  a  mystical  splendor  is  shed,  so  that  the 
vicarious  suffering  of  Christ  in  the  person  of  the  hero, 
along  with  his  own  suffering,  becomes  the  salvation  of 
mankind.  Amfortas,  the  King  of  the  Grail,  who  is 
freed  from  his  torments  by  Parsifal,  had  been  wounded 
with  the  same  lance  which  once  pierced  the  Redeemer's 
side  and  Herodias  lives  on  in  Kundry,  the  messenger 
of  the  Grail. 

The  sin  of  the  hero  is  ignorance  of  suffering,  which 
refuses  sympathy;  through  sympathy  he  attains  to  un- 
derstanding without  guilt.  Because  of  this  there  is 
lacking  in  the  drama  everything  that  otherwise  forms 
a  basis  in  tragic  conflicts  and  in  its  temper  it  consciously 
approaches  the  oratorio,  the  character  of  which  also 
prevails  in  the  music.  Even  if  this  coloring  were  de- 


ERNST  VON  WILDENBRUCH  133 

inanded  by  the  peculiar  nature  of  the  material,  it  yet 
gives  evidence  of  declining  powers  and  does  not  permit 
the  last  lofty  work  of  Wagner  to  appear  as  the  equal 
of  the  earlier  dramas.  Perhaps  this  was  contributed  to 
by  the  suffering  which  overtook  him  even  while  he  was 
working  at  Parsifal,  and  to  which  he  succumbed,  Feb. 
13,  1883. 

With  Wagner's  last  works  is  closed  for  the  present 
the  history  of  the  musical  drama  of  Germany.  Neither 
in  the  old  forms  nor  in  the  new  ones  created  by  him  has 
there  a  work  appeared  which  can  offer  anything  fresh  in 
respect  to  drama  and  the  present  day  is  still  living  en- 
tirely on  its  inheritance  from  the  great  age  of  opera 
which  began  with  Gluck  and  has  ended,  as  it  seems, 
with  Wagner. 

ERNST  VON  WILDENBRUCH 

The  salutary  influence  of  the  Meininger  on  the  stage 
and  the  public,  the  interest  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  noble 
art,  which  has  been  awakened  by  them  and  Richard 
Wagner,  was  first  of  advantage  to  ERNST  VON  WILDEN- 
BRUCH, a  poet  who  for  ten  long  years  had  been 
knocking  in  vain  at  the  portals  of  the  theatre  with  his 
dramas  of  an  ideal  tendency.  In  May,  1881,  the  Mein- 
inger brought  his  tragedy,  Die  Karolinger,  upon  the 
boards  at  their  home,  in  the  autumn  of  the  same  year  a 
Berlin  theatre  repeated  the  attempt  amid  the  greatest 
applause  and  then  his  earlier  rejected  tragedies  appeared 
in  rapid  succession  in  all  the  larger  theatres.  In  him 
seemed  to  have  been  found  the  long  wished  for  suc- 
cessor of  Schiller,  who  was  to  bring  release  from  the 
wretched  drama  of  the  last  decades. 


134  GERMAN  DRAMA 

Carried  away  by  the  strong  passionate  flight  of  his 
poetry,  the  public  overlooked  the  weaknesses  in  the  con- 
fused plot,  the  insufficient  motivation  and  the  superficial 
psychology.  The  poet  did  not  allow  his  hearers  to  re- 
cover consciousness  so  long  as  he  held  them  in  his  spell 
and  it  was  seen  that  the  seemingly  worn-out  forms  of 
the  old  historical  drama  again  and  again  prove  their 
power,  whenever  a  strong  individuality  and  an  ideal 
temperament  give  them  the  corresponding  contents  and 
whenever  the  desire  for  brilliant  pictures,  for  strong 
momentary  effects  is  fulfilled. 

On  looking  closer,  however,  one  recognizes  that  Wild- 
enbruch's  enthusiastic  temperament  was  not  kindled 
by  warm  spiritual  conflict.  Settled  in  his  moral  and 
patriotic  convictions,  he  scarcely  feels  the  deep  dis- 
cord running  through  his  times,  however  much  trouble 
he  gives  himself  to  comprehend  and  represent  the  move- 
ments of  the  present.  Over  his  first  dramas  lay  the 
rosy  glimmer  of  a  simple  youthful  belief  in  ideals  which 
had  not  yet  been  dimmed  by  experience.  The  hope  has 
not  been  fulfilled  that  he  would  struggle  upwards  out  of 
this  beginner's  stage  which  is  best  embodied  in  Die 
Karolinger  (1882),  Harold  (1882),  Der  Mennonit 
(1884)  and  Das  neue  Gebot  (1886). 

Even  Die  Haubenlerche  (1891),  which  tries  to  make 
connection  with  the  realistic  drama  of  the  present,  aims 
at  proving  his  good  faith  in  the  well-regulated  mechan- 
ism of  the  course  of  the  world  with  its  righteous  divis- 
ion of  reward  and  punishment,  only  that  the  pathos 
disguises  itself  in  Berlin  dialect  and  the  people  do  not 
wear  historical  dress.  Wildenbruch  gained  his  greatest 
and  most  lasting  triumph  with  this  play  because  he 
succeeded  in  infusing  into  the  scenes  from  lowly  life 


ERNST  VON  WILDENBRUCH  135 

a  lofty,  inspiring  and  yet  human  spirit  which  the  ma- 
jority of  dramatists  misused  for  mere  formal  experi- 
ments. But  his  own  particular  field  is  the  historical 
drama  which  places  external  scenes  before  the  eyes  of 
the  spectator  with  superficial  argumentation  and  above 
all  tries  to  cause  strong  excitement  through  interest 
in  the  subject. 

Subjects  from  the  history  of  Brandenburg  and  Prussia 
lay  nearest  to  hand  for  this  enthusiastic  patriot  and,  as 
Raupach  had  once  done  for  the  Hohenstaufens,  so  now 
Wildenbruch  has  put  the  Hohenzollerns  on  the  stage  in 
a  series  of  historical  pictures  and  of  faithful  portraits. 
But  in  this  he  is  not  guided,  like  his  predecessors,  by 
the  purpose  of  using  the  stage  to  supplement  the  teach- 
ings of  history,  but  in  his  veins  there  courses  a  glowing 
love,  admiration,  and  gratitude  to  the  sovereigns  who 
have  by  their  sturdy  deeds  made  little  Brandenburg 
the  cradle  of  the  modern  German  Empire. 

About  the  heads  of  these  rulers  there  gathers  all  glory 
in  the  Hohenzollern  dramas,  Die  Quitzows  (1888),  Der 
Generalfeldoberst  (1889),  and  Der  neue  Herr  (1891). 
The  dramatic  life  of  the  characters  is  a  failure  because 
of  the  conviction  that  all  opposition  to  the  mission  of  the 
Hohenzollern  is  unjustifiable  in  itself  and  must  be  un- 
successful. 

Wildenbruch  does  not,  however,  deserve  the  reproach 
of  servility.  His  noble  enthusiasm  is  far  removed  from 
the  commanded  glorification  in  the  showy  festival  plays 
of  Joseph  Lauff,  who  otherwise  proves  himself  to  be  a 
sane,  sympathetic  nature,  as  in  his  comedy,  Der  Heer- 
ohme  (1902),  or  the  voluntary  place-hunting  of  im- 
portunate "patriotic"  poets.  Wildenbruch  gained  later 
a  great  but  temporary  success  with  the  double  drama, 


136  GERMAN   DRAMA 

Heinrich  und  Heinrichs  Geschlecht  (1896).  The  his- 
torical contrast  of  Germany's  monarchial  principles  and 
the  Papacy  on  the  one  hand  and  the  conflict  of  the  king 
against  the  egoism  and  separatism  of  German  princes 
on  the  other,  are  the  motive  forces  of  those  histories. 
The  poet  did  not  succeed,  however,  in  translating  the 
political  motives  into  human  ones  nor  in  avoiding  the 
impression  of  chance  in  the  course  of  the  historical 
events.  In  addition  to  this,  he  has  in  this  drama  still 
oftener  than  before  brought  in  theatrical  effects  and 
is  not  able  to  hold  fast  the  lines  of  characterization  even 
in  the  rudest  outlines.  The  weakening  of  his  power  in 
the  later  acts,  which  is  a  special  characteristic  of  Wild- 
enbruch,  is  seen  very  clearly  in  his  latest  drama,  Konig 
Laurin  (1902).  The  beginning  of  the  action  in  the  first 
act  is  significant  and  exciting  but  it  flattens  out  quickly 
into  a  play  of  intrigue  and  proceeds  fitfully  and  capri- 
ciously from  one  startling  scene  to  another. 

Actuated  by  the  noblest  purposes,  endowed  with  the 
valuable  qualities  of  a  strong  temperament  and  of  an 
accurate  eye  for  what  is  suited  to  the  stage,  Wilden- 
bruch's  talent  has  after  all  brought  little  good  to  Ger- 
man drama.  Each  of  his  successes  means  only  a  per- 
sonal victory  to  the  detriment  of  those  efforts  which 
are  aimed  at  developing  the  psychical  and  strengthening 
the  contact  with  the  life  of  the  present. 


THE  OLD  ART  AND   NATURALISM 

BASED  on  the  conviction  that  classic  antiquity  has  left 
behind  it  in  all  realms  of  art  works  that  will  forever 
remain  standard,  the  view  has  been  prevalent  since  the 
Renaissance  that  perfection  is  only  to  be  attained  by 
following  these  models.  The  history  of  modern  German 
poetry  up  to  the  present  is  the  history  of  its  relation  to 
antiquity.  Its  different  periods  are  distinguished  in 
this,  that  sometimes  the  outward  form,  sometimes  the 
whole  intellectual  world  of  antiquity  is  to  be  acquired. 
Sometimes  the  effort  is  made  to  deny  the  present  and 
become  wrapped  up  in  the  antique,  sometimes  to  com- 
bine the  views  of  antiquity  with  modern  ideas. 

Classic  art  represents  the  last  stage  of  this  road  and 
all  the  attacks  of  the  Romanticists,  of  "Young  Ger- 
many" and  of  the  partisans  of  Realism  down  into  the 
eighties  were  scarcely  able  to  give  the  dominion  of  the 
art-view  established  by  the  classicists  a  passing  shock, 
let  alone  to  overthrow  it. 

The  reason  for  this  was  partly  that  the  great  German 
writers  had  with  the  greatest  ability  perfected  this  style 
in  their  masterpieces  and  that  the  form  was  then  given 
credit  for  the  elevating  effect  which  for  the  most  part 
depended  upon  quite  personal  characteristics  of  Goethe 
and  Schiller.  But  even  in  themselves  Schiller's  idealism 
and  the  plastic  ideal  of  form  in  the  mature  Goethe  possess 

137 


138  GERMAN  DRAMA 

a  high  ethical  and  artistic  value.  Both  correspond  en- 
tirely to  the  chief  tendencies  of  the  intellectual  devel- 
opment of  Germany  since  the  Reformation.  They  rep- 
resent the  elevation  of  the  body  of  German  citizens  from 
a  modest  existence  through  a  striving  for  individual 
development  and  the  highest  ethical  maturity  to  a  free- 
dom gained  by  will  power  because  they  are  filled  with 
faith  in  the  realm  of  ideals  and  in  the  absolute  nature 
of  ethical  demands. 

The  low,  the  ugly  and  the  immoral  find  no  place  in 
this  art  where,  as  a  justifiable  power,  they  might  have 
held  their  own,  and  passion  had  to  allow  itself  to  be 
shut  in  by  the  barriers  of  the  prevailing  ethical  system 
or  be  dashed  to  pieces  against  them.  The  finer  sub- 
jective characteristics  of  the  psychical  yield  precedence 
entirely  to  typical  qualities  and  are  considered  whimsi- 
cal and  abnormal.  To  the  heroes  was  given  a  purified 
sentiment  and  a  high  culture  which,  indifferent  to  his- 
torical facts,  permeated  all  with  the  same  idealism  and 
expressed  itself  always  in  the  same  noble,  exalted  lan- 
guage, with  scarcely  any  shade  of  personal  coloring. 
It  was  the  business  of  the  drama  in  the  first  place  to 
impress  upon  the  spectators  the  great  teachings  of  his- 
tory by  sensuous  representation,  where  some  important 
incident  was  shown  in  its  causes  and  development  and 
in  which  those  concerned  pronounced  ethical  judgment 
upon  themselves.  Only  the  past,  however,  permitted 
such  a  seemingly  final  judgment,  and  the  nearer  one 
came  to  the  present,  the  less  could  one  fail  to  recognize 
that  reality  did  not  allow  of  such  clear  knowledge.  For 
this  reason  classic  art  excluded  the  present  from  the 
field  of  serious  drama  and  allowed  it  merely  to  present 
entertaining  scenes  without  any  higher  purpose.  Even 


THE  OLD  ART  AND  NATURALISM         139 

here,  however,  the  laws  of  that  theory  of  beauty  were 
held  to  be  valid  which  admitted  only  what  was  pleasing 
to  the  eye  and  the  feelings. 

It  is  clear  that  this  art  is  especially  adapted  to  awak- 
ening enthusiasm  for  everything  noble  and  grand,  to 
strengthening  in  the  people  the  belief  in  the  ideal  and  to 
providing  pure  and  lofty  enjoyment.  In  it  are  reflected 
the  best  qualities  of  German  character  and  its  imper- 
ishable significance  depends  upon  the  fact  that  it  re- 
peatedly embodies  in  noble  form  the  victory  of  the  free 
moral  will  over  necessity. 

And  yet  it  cannot  be  denied  that  to  fulfil  its  office, 
it  simplified  the  universe  altogether  too  much,  did  not 
venture  to  tread  the  mysterious  regions  of  the  inner 
life  and  paid  too  exclusive  attention  to  the  conscious 
impulses  taking  form  in  powerful  action. 

Idealism,  upon  which  it  depended,  was  crowded  out 
in  the  course  of  the  nineteenth  century  by  other  philo- 
sophical conceptions  of  first  principles,  especially  by 
Pessimism  and  Materialism.  The  natural  sciences  gained 
a  decisive  influence  upon  thought  because  of  which  the 
universe  was  put  out  of  joint.  The  spirit  no  longer 
appeared  to  be  the  independent  sovereign  of  matter  but 
bound  to  it  indissolubly  and  conditioned  by  it  in  its 
being.  ^Recognition  of  the  historical,  geographical  and 
social  relativity  of  all  phenomena  limited  extraordinarily 
the  assumption  of  personal  freedom  and  in  the  place 
of  the  earlier  simple  hypotheses  came  now  the  co-opera- 
tion of  highly  complicated  factors,  to  which  was  as- 
signed an  absolute  power,  in  accordance  with  natural 
laws. 

Because  of  this,  historical  events  also  appeared  in  a 
different  light,  no  longer  as  a  series  of  great  heroic 


140  GERMAN  DRAMA 

deeds,  but  as  a  necessary  result  of  industrial  and 
psychical  mass-movements  in  which  the  highest  as  well 
as  the  lowest  must  take  part  because  everywhere  the 
same  inviolable  laws  hold  sway. 

The  earlier  standards  of  the  essential  and  the  non- 
essential,  derived  from  the  ethical  estimate  of  person- 
ality, were  rejected  and  in  vain  did  historic  science 
and  philosophy  look  for  new  and  universally  accepted 
values. 

As  a  result  of  this  confusion,  the  new  art  sought 
at  first  to  reproduce  only  external  phenomena  as  con- 
scientiously as  possible  and,  in  order  to  avoid  the  sus- 
picion of  an  independent  valuation  in  the  old  sense, 
preferred  now  those  very  subjects  which,  according  to 
the  earlier  estimate,  were  considered  distasteful  to  art 
and  without  significance,  and  to  which,  in  addition, 
there  clung  the  charm  of  novelty. 

With  the  intensified  curiosity  of  an  explorer  who 
penetrates  into  an  untrodden  district  of  Africa  the 
material  and  psychical  life  of  the  proletariat,  the  pros- 
titutes and  the  criminals  was  observed  and  described, 
without  subjective  coloring,  as  far  as  possible  like  an 
object  in  natural  science. 

This  procedure  was  called  Naturalism.  Long  before 
there  was  talk  of  this  tendency  in  Germany  it  had 
become  dominant  in  France  and  from  there  had  exer- 
cised an  influence,  especially  in  Scandinavia  and  Russia. 
Even.  Romanticism  in  France,  in  contrast  with  that 
of  Germany,  had  become  extremely  progressive  and 
democratic  in  political  matters.  It  inclined  to  the  social 
conception  which  had  given  rise  to  a  new  art  of  story- 
telling in  Balzac's  novels.  Upon  the  foundation  laid 
by  him  built  the  great  masters  Gustav  Flaubert  and 


THE  OLD  ART  AND  NATURALISM        141 

Emil  Zola.  The  latter  had  described  contemporary 
society  of  France  in  a  long  series  of  novels  and  therefore 
his  foreign  imitators  also  tried  to  describe  society  in 
their  countries  in  the  form  of  the  novel  and  at  the 
same  time  to  follow  conscientiously  the  technique  of 
their  master  and  the  principles  which  he  had  derived 
from  natural  science.  He  supplied  no  serviceable 
model,  however,  for  the  drama;  his  Therese  Raquin 
was  a  failure  as  even  his  most  enthusiastic  partisans 
had  to  acknowledge. 

The  writers  who  wished  to  establish  a  naturalistic 
drama  in  Germany  believed  that  they  had  found  their 
master  in  the  great  Norwegian  HENRIK  IBSEN.  This 
was  an  error,  for  Ibsen  never  wrote  in  naturalistic 
fashion  in  the  sense  in  which  Zola  did.  In  his  first 
drama,  Catilina,  he  defined  it  as  his  purpose  to  represent 
the  contradiction  between  will  and  possibility,  between 
humanity  and  the  individual;  the  tragedy  and  the  com- 
edy of  humanity  and  of  the  individual  conjointly  was 
to  be  his  drama. 

At  first  he  realized  this  purpose,  treating  preferably 
historical  and  legendary  material  with  Romantic  touch 
and  in  rhythmic  form,  but  even  in  The  Comedy  of  Love 
(1862)  the  action  is  laid  in  the  present.  With  The 
League  of  Youth  (1869)  began  the  series  of  Ibsen's 
modern  prose  dramas.  They  all  describe  Norwegian 
society  and  show  that  its  conditions,  externally  so  well 
regulated,  are  in  truth  corroded  with  common  selfish- 
ness, with  prejudices  and  vices  and  are  therefore  not 
permanent. 

The  second  of  these  plays,  The  Pillars  of  Society 
(1877),  sums  up  this  criticism  in  one  great  picture. 
The  individual  phenomena  are  then  examined  in  A 


142  GERMAN  DRAMA 

Doll's  House  (1879)  where,  in  the  heroine  Nora,  is 
sketched  the  degeneration  of  the  wife  because  of  illib- 
eral education  and  of  unworthy  society-position ;  also  in 
An  Enemy  of  the  People  (1882),  which  shows  the  harm- 
ful influence  of  public  opinion,  and  in  Ghosts  (1883), 
a  ruthless  condemnation  of  modern  marriage,  based 
upon  the  laws  of  inheritance,  the  results  of  which  come 
out  in  terrible  form  in  the  case  of  the  wife  who  was 
bought,  and  of  the  offspring  of  the  unnatural  union. 
The  Wild  Duck  (1884)  forms  the  conclusion  of  this 
series.  While  Ibsen  in  the  preceding  dramas  has  every- 
where defended  the  claims  of  truth  and  freedom  and 
of  the  absolute  assertion  of  individuality,  he  shows  here 
the  necessity  of  the  society-lie  and  of  dependence  for 
the  people  of  the  present  and  seems  to  condemn  his 
former  endeavors  as  cruel  and  useless. 

In  the  succeeding  dramas  he  did  not  exercise  any 
further  criticism  of  society  but  made  use  of  existing 
conditions  only  as  a  basis  for  the  treatment  of  peculiar 
psychological  problems.  In  Rosmersholm  (1886)  it  is 
a  question  only  of  the  fate  of  the  individual  so  far 
as  it  depends  on  ethical  principles.  Even  here  there  is 
an  element  of  mysticism  intermingled  which  next  re- 
ceives the  principal  attention  in  the  Lady  from  the  Sea 
(1888),  a  drama  in  which  the  psychological  solution  of 
the  marriage  question  is  attempted.  In  Hedda  Gabler 
(1891)  this  element  of  the  absolutely  mysterious  again 
disappears,  though  Hedda 's  condition  has  something  en- 
tirely indefinable  which  conditions  her  state  of  feeling 
and  the  whole  course  of  the  action. 

Then  the  mystical  becomes  dominant  in  The  Master 
Builder,  the  tragedy  of  a  will-power  failing  to  act  and 
in  Little  Eyolf  (1894),  a  drama  in  which  the  impulse 


THE  OLD  ART  AND  NATURALISM        143 

to  evil  is  overcome  and  a  selfish,  sensual  love  is  given 
up  in  favor  of  mighty  deeds  for  the  future.  The  last 
two  works  of  Ibsen  are  variations  of  the  same  theme. 
In  John  Gabriel  Borckmann  (1896)  and  the  sequel, 
When  We  Dead  Awaken  (1899),  ruthless  effort,  even 
when  it  sets  the  highest  aims  before  it,  is  attacked  as  a 
mortal  enemy  because  it  destroys  the  life  of  love,  man's 
most  valuable  possession. 

The  error  of  the  German  naturalists,  who  believed 
that  they  saw  in  Ibsen  an  artist  akin  to  Zola,  arose  from 
the  fact  that  he,  too,  was  unfriendly  to  embellishment, 
gave  scenes  from  the  life  of  the  present,  did  not  avoid 
the  distasteful  and  employed  the  results  of  the  modern 
natural  sciences  in  the  motivation  and  psychology  of 
his  dramas. 

But  all  these  new  methods  are  in  Ibsen  at  the  service 
of  the  old  problems  of  art  which  are  no  longer  recog- 
nized by  Naturalism.  With  their  aid  he  desires  to  solve 
certain  problems  and  to  assign  values.  Not  the  simple 
connection  of  cause  and  effect  but  the  sway  of  fate, 
though  somewhat  modern  in  dress,  decides  the  result, 
which  is  specially  conditioned  by  very  complicated  per- 
sonalities. Because  of  this  it  loses  the  typical  character 
required  by  Naturalism.  And  yet  these  personalities 
do  not,  as  with  earlier  authors,  stand  in  empty  space; 
they  must  breathe  the  life  of  their  times  even  if  it  is 
full  of  pestilence. 

All  this  might  also  have  been  found  in  Hebbel's 
dramas,  but  Ibsen's  technique  appeared  quite  new  and 
contributed  most  to  his  being  reckoned  among  the 
Naturalists.  Hebbel  had  made  the  implied  demand  that 
the  spectator  allow  the  validity  of  certain  special  con- 
ditions of  the  artistic  world  which  are  at  variance  with 


ill-  GERMAN  DRAMA 

iv.-ility  and  himself  aid  the  poet  to  this  end  by  the 
display  of  a  vigorous  imagination.  Ibsen,  on  the 
other  hand,  makes  illusion  easier  than  any  of  his  pred- 
ecessors. His  characters  speak  as  in  real  life;  sug- 
gestively, brokenly,  capriciously,  revealing  their  thoughts 
only  accidentally  and  unwillingly.  Nothing  seems  to 
be  said  to  instruct  the  hearers  or  to  guide  their  judg- 
ment, but  the  consummate  art  of  the  dialogue  produces 
an  absolutely  faithful  picture  of  real  conversation  be- 
cause the  characters  on  the  stage  follow  by  inherent 
necessity  the  laws  of  the  reciprocal  interchange  of 
thought.  Moreover,  we  look  deeper  into  their  souls 
than  was  possible  by  the  earlier  method  which  only 
availed  itself  of  conscious,  pointed  utterances  on  the 
stage.  At  the  same  time  the  events  are  imitated  and 
joined  to  one  another  in  a  way  which  seems  to  have 
no  regard  at  all  for  the  spectator  or  the  needs  of  dra- 
matic construction  and  especially  assists  in  producing 
the  impression  of  a  simple  reproduction  of  an  accidental 
event.  In  truth,  however,  there  is  to  be  recognized 
in  this  a  triumph  of  the  greatest  command  of  dramatic 
art-form,  for  everything  seemingly  accidental  is  at  the 
service  of  the  problem  of  representing  visibly  the  action 
in  its  course.  True,  Ibsen's  idea  of  an  action  is  differ- 
ent from  that  of  the  majority  of  his  predecessors.  He 
has  gone  deep  in  this  way,  that  the  outward  action 
no  longer  dominates  but  the  inward  processes  which 
condition  and  accompany  the  action  are  made  percepti- 
ble to  the  senses.  To  demonstrate  these  as  clearly  as 
possible  he  makes  the  real  action  extremely  limited  and, 
like  the  Greek  tragedians,  represents  on  the  stage  only 
the  final  steps  which  lead  to  the  fall.  He  is  thus  com- 
pelled to  recover  the  earlier  stages  of  the  course  of 


THE  OLD  ART  AND  NATURALISM        145 

events  in  the  form  of  an  exposition  which  runs  along 
through  the  whole  play.  In  this  he  also  shows  in  bril- 
liant fashion  his  mastery  over  all  devices  by  influencing 
his  characters,  without  any  visible  compulsion  but  be- 
cause of  the  given  conditions,  to  communicate  the  nec- 
essary hypotheses. 

By  his  enhancement  of  illusion,  his  deepening  of  the 
intellectual  life  and  his  perfect  technique,  Ibsen  has 
become  the  most  significant  dramatist  of  the  present 
day  and  no  one  who  in  seriousness  writes  for  the  stage 
can  escape  his  influence,  let  him  yield  ever  so  reluctantly. 

Ibsen's  less  important  fellow-countryman,  BJORN- 
STJERNE  BJORNSON,  has  also  made  a  strong  impression 
in  Germany  and  gained  a  certain  influence.  Even  be- 
fore Ibsen  became  known  in  Germany,  Ein  Fallissement 
(1874),  a  society-play  made  after  French  models  but 
more  realistic,  had  won  its  way  on  the  stage  and  at 
the  close  of  our  period  his  double  drama,  Uber  unsre 
Kraft  (1893-95),  called  forth  passionate  excitement. 
This,  however,  originated  more  from  the  religious  sub- 
ject of  the  first  part  and  the  social  subject  of  the 
second  than  directly  from  the  merit  of  the  work. 
Bjornson's  technique  always  retains  something  of  the 
conventional  and  the  theatrical  and  cannot  disown  its 
descent  from  the  French. 

Bjornson  is  still  farther  removed  than  Ibsen  from 
Naturalism  of  which  the  Swede,  AUGUST  STRINDBERG, 
must  be  considered  the  most  logical  representative.  In 
many  of  his  dramas,  such  as  Der  Vater  (1887),  Frdulein 
Julie  (1888),  etc.,  he  aims  only  at  reproducing  abso- 
lutely and  faithfully  from  second  to  second  in  its  out- 
ward course  a  scene  from  the  world  of  reality  and 
claims  that  to  him  the  value  and  the  influence  of  what 


146  GERMAN  DRAMA 

is  presented  is  quite  indifferent.  Of  course  this  is  in 
reality  not  the  case  and  even  with  him  there  is  not 
wanting  a  trend  which,  according  to  Naturalism,  ought 
to  be  excluded. 

Besides  Ibsen  and  Strindberg  there  is  a  third  nom- 
inally Naturalistic  dramatist  who  acquired  an  influ- 
ence in  Germany,  the  Kussian  Count,  LEO  TOLSTOI.  His 
really  great  drama,  The  Powers  of  Darkness  (1887), 
throws  a  light  upon  the  moral  degradation  of  the  Rus- 
sian peasantry.  Every  one  of  their  characteristics  is 
faithfully  noted  and  candidly  reproduced  but  there  is 
no  effort  to  attain  to  the  exactness  demanded  by  Nat- 
uralism and  the  moral  standard  is  not  lacking.  Rather, 
the  purpose  of  the  poet  is  directed  to  showing  the 
connection  between  guilt  and  atonement  in  a  dramatic 
action  of  the  old  style  and,  instead  of  scientific  views, 
a  fervent  positive  Christian  conviction  permeates  the 
whole.  Once  again  it  is  merely  the  psychological 
depth  and  the  peculiar  nature  of  the  coarse  incidents 
which  ruthlessly  reveal  the  depths  of  vice  and  contra- 
dict the  old  ideal  of  beauty  that  suggest  the  appearance 
of  Naturalism. 

On  the  basis  of  the  impression  produced  by  its  foreign 
representatives  in  Germany,  the  essence  of  Naturalism 
is  represented  at  the  end  of  the  eighties  as  follows: 
Naturalism  chooses  its  material  exclusively  from  the 
life  of  the  present  day  and  preferably  from  the  domain 
of  the  lowly,  the  ugly  and  the  morally  objectionable, 
which  up  to  the  present  has  been  excluded  from  artistic 
treatment.  Instead  of  plots  it  offers  accurately  ob- 
served scenes  and  individual  incidents  which  are  to  be 
considered  typical  of  the  conditions  of  society.  In  ad- 
dition, abnormal  morbid  qualities  are  assigned  to  the 


THE  OLD  ART  AND  NATURALISM         147 

characters  introduced  which,  however,  likewise  claim 
a  typical  significance  as  the  results  of  the  unnatural 
conditions  of  modern  life.  Everything  is  derived  from 
psychological  and  pathological  causes.  The  law  of 
causality  holds  unconditional  sway,  represented  by  scien- 
tific hypotheses,  such  as  heredity  and  the  influence  of 
suggestion  upon  the  will  and  by  socialistic  theories. 
Instead  of  strong  utterances  of  passion,  conversation 
alone  serves  as  the  means  of  sketching  character  and 
of  disclosing  the  progress  of  events.  Involuntary  sug- 
gestions, instead  of  intentional  communications,  seeming 
equalization  of  what  is  essential  and  non-essential,  avoid- 
ance of  the  monologue  and  of  everything  serving  merely 
for  the  enlightenment  of  the  spectator,  and  the  most 
accurate  prescriptions  for  everything  external  are  to 
produce  complete  illusion  without  any  assistance  from 
the  imagination  of  the  spectator. 

The  single  aim  is  ostensibly  to  do  battle  against  lying, 
hypocrisy  and  whatever  is  antiquated  in  art  and  life. 
At  the  same  time  judgment  is  mostly  given  from  the 
standpoint  of  youthful  inexperience  and  of  extreme 
political  and  social  endeavor  which  would  like  at  one 
stroke  to  put  a  new  order  of  society  and  a  new  art 
in  the  place  of  the  old,  and  to  which  therefore  every- 
thing is  welcome  which  makes  light  of  prevailing  views. 


148  GERMAN  DRAMA 

THE  "FREE  THEATRES" 

From  the  year  1885  Naturalism  has  been  a  force  in 
Germany  in  lyric  poetry  and  in  drama,  and  has  been 
fostered  by  individual,  mostly  quite  young  authors. 
Although  it  had  to  encounter  the  most  violent  attacks 
from  the  moral,  political  and  aesthetic  point  of  view  and 
its  representatives  were,  in  fact,  haled  before  the  courts 
to  give  answer  for  their  faith,  yet  the  new  ideas  gradu- 
ally did,  after  all,  make  a  place  for  themselves  and 
gained  enthusiastic  admirers,  especially  among  the 
young  people  of  the  large  cities. 

But  all  hope  of  winning  over  the  regular  theatres 
seemed  excluded.  They  were  surrounded,  as  it  were, 
by  a  threefold  wall,  the  anxious  regard  of  their  man- 
agers for  all  possible  prejudices  of  middle-class  society, 
the  superficial  love  of  amusement  on  the  part  of  the 
public  and  the  censorship  of  the  police,  which,  devoid 
of  all  artistic  judgment,  forbade  everything  which 
seemed  to  contain  a  criticism  of  existing  conditions  or 
was  not  allowable  in  life,  according  to  the  judgment  of 
the  normal  state-official,  or  indeed  offended  merely 
against  aesthetic  rules.  The  police,  as  everybody  knows, 
have  in  Germany  the  office  of  defending  against  every 
attack,  not  only  religion,  custom  and  order,  but  even 
the  taste  of  the  citizens. 

Under  these  circumstances  the  production  of  a  nat- 
uralistic drama  in  Germany  was,  it  seemed,  impossible. 
But  in  Paris  the  actor  Antoine  had  established  a  theatre 
libre,  which  arranged  performances  for  the  members 
of  a  society  only  and  therefore  could  not  be  troubled 
by  police  censorship  and  was  not  influenced  by  the 
"business"  interest  of  the  ordinary  theatre. 


THE  "FREE  THEATRES"  149 

After  this  model  the  Freie  Biihne  society  of  Berlin 
originated  in  April,  1889.  In  the  choice  of  dramatic 
works,  as  well  as  in  their  presentation  on  the  stage,  its 
aim  was  to  aspire  to  a  living  art  uninfluenced  by  any 
reference  to  models  or  artistic  perfection.  Especially 
those  dramas  were  to  be  considered  which,  because  of 
their  nature,  were  not  acceptable  to  the  regular  theatres. 

The  Berlin  "Free  Theatre"  began  its  activity  in  the 
autumn  of  1889  with  Ibsen's  Ghosts  and  in  the  first 
year  of  its  existence  reached  the  goodly  number  of 
about  700  members.  The  half  of  the  other  plays  it 
offered  were  translations:  Henrietta  Marechal,  by  the 
brothers  Goncourt,  a  finely  conceived  but  ineffectively 
presented  section  of  actual  life;  Der  Handschuh  by 
Bjornson,  a  thesis-play,  which,  in  spite  of  the  importance 
of  the  problem,  was  likewise  no  gain  to  the  stage; 
Tolstoi's  Powers  of  Darkness  and  the  unimportant  play, 
Auf  dem  Heimwege  by  the  Norwegian  Alexander  Kiel- 
land.  German  literature  was  represented  by  Fitger's 
Von  Gottes  Gnaden,  a  drama  of  the  old  style  which  had 
been  refused  entry  to  the  stage  merely  from  political 
timidity,  by  Anzengruber's  Viertes  Gebot  and  by  three 
works  of  authors,  up  to  that  time  unknown,  who  were 
faithfully  following  in  the  footsteps  of  French  and 
Norwegian  Naturalism :  Die  Familie  Selicke,  the  joint 
production  of  Arno  Holz  and  Johannes  Schlaf,  which 
presented  indifferent  events  with  painful  tediousness, 
and  the  two  maiden  works  of  Gerhart  Hauptmann. 

For  the  first  time  attention  was  here  called  to  the 
prominent  figure  of  the  Silesian  dramatist  and  the  vio- 
lent conflict  of  opinions  which  his  dramas  caused  gave 
significance  to  the  important  success  which  the  Berlin 
"Free  Theatre"  gained  during  the  brief  period  of  its 


150  GERMAN  DRAMA 

prime.  What  only  individual  productions  from  foreign 
countries  had  for  a  long  time  previously  been  able  to 
do,  that  is,  excite  general  and  passionate  interest  in  a 
work  intended  for  the  theatre,  this  a  German  author 
now  succeeded  in  for  the  first  time. 

In  the  second  year  the  Berlin  "Free  Theatre"  was 
able  to  offer  its  members  only  five  additional  perform- 
ances, among  which,  along  with  Hauptmann's  Einsame 
Menschen,  Otto  Erich  Hartleben's  Angele  at  most  had  a 
certain  importance.  In  the  third  year  there  was  only 
one  single  performance,  Strindberg's  Komtesse  Julie. 
The  board  of  directors  explained  that  the  mission  of 
the  "Free  Theatre"  was  fulfilled.  The  real  cause  of 
the  rapid  decline  was,  however,  the  lack  of  available 
works  of  a  naturalistic  tendency. 

The  same  fate  befell  the  other  societies  which  had 
been  founded  with  the  same  purpose  as  the  Berlin  ' '  Free 
Theatre"  in  Munich,  Vienna,  Leipzig,  Dresden  and  other 
cities.  In  itself  it  was  a  happy  idea  for  circles  gifted 
\vith  artistic  taste  to  cut  loose  by  their  own  inherent 
strength  from  the  degenerate  practices  of  the  regular 
theatres,  though  Kichard  Wagner  had  already  antici- 
pated them  in  his  Bayreuth  "patronage  society."  The 
idea  came  to  naught  because  the  guiding  spirits  of  the 
"Free  Theatres"  allowed  themselves  to  be  carried  along 
exclusively  by  the  current  of  Naturalism.  The  danger- 
ous rocks  on  which  their  boat  went  to  pieces  were  lack 
of  dramatic  interest  and  of  aesthetic  satisfaction  in  the 
plays  presented.  When  the  first  curiosity  had  been 
satisfied,  the  majority  of  their  adherents  returned  peni- 
tently to  the  old  style. 

And  yet  the  "Free  Theatres"  had  gained  a  valuable 
victory  by  their  activity.  The  limits  of  the  permissible 


THE  "FREE  THEATRES"  151 

were  extended,  new  subjects  had  been  introduced,  a 
more  faithful  presentation  of  external  and  internal  de- 
velopments was  recognized  as  a  most  important  duty  of 
the  dramatist,  careful  observation  took  the  place  of  con- 
ventional characterization  and  the  technique  of  author 
and  actor  endeavored  to  arrive  at  complete  illusion.  At 
the  same  time  a  keener  judgment  revealed  the  worthless- 
ness  of  the  hollow  forms  and  of  the  phrase-filled  ideal- 
ism of  the  decadent  literature,  of  the  but  seemingly 
modern  society-plays  aiming  at  outward  effect  and  of 
the  silly  comedy  and  degenerate  folk-play  with  its  reg- 
ular conventional  figures. 

For  some  years  it  seemed  as  if  the  classic  plays  also, 
especially  those  of  Schiller's  last  period,  would  be  drawn 
down  into  this  whirlpool,  but  the  outlook  soon  cleared. 
It  was  recognized  that  these  works  had  preserved  their 
full  life  and  power  throughout  the  nineteenth  century 
and  that  it  was  merely  denied  to  the  workers  of  an 
altogether  differently  constituted  time  to  give  true  and 
complete  expression  to  their  thoughts  and  feelings  with 
the  same  artistic  means. 

Those  older  dramatists  who  had  endeavored  to  reach 
this  goal,  Hebbel,  Ludwig  and  Anzengruber,  only  now 
secured  a  proper  appreciation ;  the  works  of  the  mature 
Grillparzer,  such  as  Die  Judm  von  Toledo  and  Libussa, 
shone  out  with  new  brilliancy,  and  forgotten  precursors 
of  Natnralism,  like  Biichner,  Dulk  and  Nierbergall  were 
rediscovered.  These  earlier  writers  had  also  to  make 
up  for  the  lack  of  artistic  and  technically  capable  rep- 
resentatives of  the  "moderns." 

It  soon  turned  out  that  the  attempt  to  establish  an 
entirely  new  dramatic  art  in  Germany  had  failed.  The 
features  peculiar  to  Naturalism  that  were  of  use  were 


152  GERMAN  DRAMA 

now  combined  in  milder  form  with  the  old  subjects 
and  with  the  old  technique  by  certain  of  its  first  parti- 
sans and  new  rising  talents  but  without  the  pretense 
of  driving  out  the  old  art. 

HERMANN  SUDERMANN 

While  extreme  Naturalism  was  undone  because  it  was 
unable  to  conjure  up  a  new  drama  by  magic,  prudent 
writers,  acting  as  mediators  between  the  old  and  the  new, 
chose  well-beaten  paths.  In  part  they  injected  new 
life  into  the  old  historical  drama  by  weaving  into  it 
realistic  effective  figures,  as  did  Wildenbruch;  in  part 
they  anticipated  the  newly  awakened  interest  in  the 
entire  life  of  the  present  in  that,  while  avoiding  every- 
thing too  offensive,  they  presented  the  proletariat  and 
the  inferior  creatures,  who  had  been  unnoticed  before 
or  had  appeared  only  in  idealizing  colors  on  the  stage, 
as  well  as  characters  from  the  higher  and  middle  classes 
who  were  now  conceived  of  in  a  slightly  less  conven- 
tional fashion.  In  this  they  made  careful  use  of  the 
expedients  of  naturalistic  art  but  in  general  adhered 
closely  to  the  old  well-connected  plot  and  exercised  all 
other  considerations  for  what  was  suitable  to  the  stage. 

In  the  same  year  that  the  Berlin  "Free  Theatre" 
began  its  activity,  the  most  successful  representative 
of  this  middle  party,  HERMANN  SUDERMANN,  was  al- 
lowed, after  long  waiting,  to  bring  his  play,  Die  Ehre 
(1889),  upon  the  stage. 

Unadjusted  and  unconnected,  the  old  and  the  new  art 
are  still  found  side  by  side.  One-half  of  the  play 
belongs  to  the  Vorderhaus  and  without  any  essential 
changes  the  well  known  figures  of  German  middle-class 


HERMANN  SUDERMANN  153 

plays  come  on  the  stage:  the  rich  merchant  prince,  his 
vain  gossiping  wife,  his  frivolous  spoiled  son  and  the 
noble  daughter  who  stands  apart  from  the  materialism 
of  the  rest  of  the  family  and  cannot  disavow  her  descent 
from  Wallenstein 's  Thekla.  She  loves  a  poor  but  very 
virtuous  youth  and  the  subject  of  the  plot,  as  with 
innumerable  predecessors,  is  the  overcoming  of  the  dif- 
ficulties which  lie  in  the  way  of  the  union  of  the  two. 
But  while  elsewhere  the  middle-class  family  appears 
alone  upon  the  scene  and  the  solution  is  brought  about 
by  some  lucky  accident,  the  saving  of  a  life,  an  inherit- 
ance or  some  similar  cheap  expedient,  Sudermann  has 
given  new  charm  to  the  old  material  by  the  introduction 
of  a  house  in  the  court  (Hinterhaus),  that  is,  a  lower 
class  of  society  which  with  hatred  and  jealousy  watches 
the  rich  house  and  endeavors  to  rise  to  its  easier  life, 
whether  by  honorable  work  or  by  vice.  This  proletariat 
had  not  as  yet  appeared  upon  the  stage  in  its  true 
form.  Honest  workmen  were  only  allowed  to  show 
themselves  in  clean  clothes  and  with  clean  language; 
common  vice  was  represented  only  by  comical,  harmless 
drunkards  or  Magdalenes  who  were  firmly  convinced 
of  the  sinfulness  of  their  doings.  No  dramatist  had 
ventured  to  represent  such  characters  in  their  true  form 
and  as  a  necessary  product  of  the  social  conditions  of 
the  present.  As  in  life  so  all  the  more  on  the  stage, 
so-called  good  society  tried  to  deny  the  existence  of 
persons  of  this  class  or  allowed  them  at  most  to  put 
in  an  appearance  in  little  episodes,  in  order  to  obtain 
certain  piquant  effects.  On  the  other  hand,  Sudermann 
gave  them  equal  dramatic  rights  and  now  when  they 
appeared  before  the  public  in  full  life-size,  they  were 
looked  at  with  a  mixture  of  curious  astonishment  and 


154  GERMAN  DRAMA 

disgust.  Especially  Alma  Heinecke  with  her  matter- 
of-course  immorality  was  a  stone  of  stumbling  for  all 
who  wanted  to  see  on  the  stage  no  vice  but  that  which 
had  been  punished  and  reformed.  But  the  low  senti- 
ments of  her  parents,  of  her  sister  Auguste  and  of  the 
brother-in-law  Michalski  were,  taken  all  in  all,  much 
more  disgusting,  because  their  cowardly  cringing  to 
the  rich  and  their  love  of  money  and  enjoyment  came 
out  in  brutal  ugliness,  while  Alma  possessed  at  least 
the  charm  of  youthful  grace  and  naivete. 

With  accurate  judgment  as  to  what  it  was  possible 
to  use  on  the  stage,  Sudermann  has  sketched  this  group 
and  its  environment,  so  that  everywhere  the  individual 
traits  contribute  matter  in  confirmation  of  the  scenes 
to  which  even  in  this  play  the  chief  interest  is  turned. 
At  the  same  time  a  diverting  effect  is  produced  by  the 
purposely  exaggerated  description  of  their  vulgarity. 
There  is  no  pretence  of  a  profound  characterization 
nor  any  intention  of  proving  the  rottenness  of  society 
conditions.  The  difference  of  the  classes  is  rather  em- 
ployed merely  to  exemplify  the  theme  under  discussion. 
This  theme,  that  every  class  has  its  own  conception 
of  honor,  is  proved  by  the  course  of  the  action,  as  in 
French  society-plays,  and  is  discussed  by  the  raissonneur, 
a  figure  introduced  expressly  for  this  purpose,  from 
a  lofty  standpoint  and  as  wittily  as  possible.  But,  after 
all,  it  is  a  question  merely  of  an  entertaining  play,  in 
spite  of  the  appearance  of  the  more  serious  purpose 
of  fathoming  life's  contradictions.  This  is  clearly 
shown  at  the  end  where  money,  which  before  had  been 
charged  with  the  blame  of  all  deterioration,  now  out- 
wardly makes  everything  good,  while  in  truth  nothing 
has  happened  to  reconcile  the  profound  contrasts.  Also 


HERMANN  SUDERMANN  155 

in  the  conduct  of  the  dialogue  in  the  front-house  scenes 
and  in  a  plentiful  use  of  clever  ideas  and  surprising 
comparisons  there  is  an  imitation  of  French  society- 
plays. 

In  this  manner  Sudermann  was  able  with  accurate 
choice  to  unite  in  his  first  play  everything,  both  from 
old  and  new,  that  it  seemed  possible  to  turn  to  good 
account  on  the  stage  at  that  time  and  the  most  brilliant 
success  attended  his  shrewd  calculation,  backed  up,  as 
it  was,  by  an  uncommonly  strong  theatrical  talent.  No 
German  theatre,  apart  from  some  Court  theatres  which 
adhered  to  their  principles,  was  able  for  long  to  resist 
the  incentive  of  the  proceeds  promised  by  Die  Ehre, 
or  the  longing  of  the  public  for  its  production,  so  that 
Sudermann  plucked  the  first  ripe  fruit  of  the  new 
efforts  to  establish  a  drama  suitable  to  the  times. 

That  this  suitability  did  not  agree  with  the  real  state 
of  affairs,  as  far  as  the  great  majority  of  the  public 
was  concerned,  Sudermann  had  to  acknowledge  when 
his  second  drama,  Sodoms  Ende  (1891),  was  ruthlessly 
rejected  by  the  same  public  which  had  applauded  Die 
Ehre.  In  this  play  he  has  painted  in  much  deeper 
and  truer  colors  the  same  front-house  which  was  de- 
scribed in  Die  Ehre  in  the  customary  kindly  colors. 
Their  moral  rottenness,  their  coarse  sensuality,  their 
contempt  for  anything  loftier  than  gain  and  enjoyment 
was  shown  without  any  toning  down  of  its  revolting 
nature.  A  young  artist  is  dragged  away  from  a  modest 
happiness  to  his  ruin  by  a  lascivious  woman  of  Berlin's 
financial  circles  and  along  with  him  a  girl  who  had 
in  vain  endeavored  to  struggle  upward  out  of  the  irides- 
cent slough. 

Granted*  that  Sodoms  Ende  is  not  the  equal  of  Die 


156  GERMAN  DRAMA 

Ehre  in  direct  dramatic  power,  that  was  after  all  not 
the  reason  of  the  failure,  but  the  fact  that  the  public 
usually  occupying  the  parquet  and  boxes  likes  to  see 
everything  on  the  stage  "without  paint"  except  its 
own  picture. 

Although  in  this  play,  too,  the  old-fashioned  raison- 
neur  plies  his  trade,  still  Sudermann's  second  drama  is 
far  more  of  a  unit  in  style  than  his  first.  The  conditions 
are  described  at  length,  the  soul-life  of  the  chief  char- 
acters is  made  individual  and  is  finely  analyzed  and  the 
course  of  the  action  develops  logically  from  the  pre- 
liminary conditions.  No  theme  is  to  be  advanced  and 
proven,  but  a  piece  of  life  is  given,  in  too  personal  a 
conception,  which  generalizes  too  hastily  the  accidental 
impressions  of  certain  parvenu  circles  and  yet  without 
any  interference  with  their  real  life.  A  few  particulars, 
such  as  especially  the  very  sharp  contrast  of  the  artist's 
home  with  the  false  brilliance  into  which  he  is  drawn, 
remind  us  of  the  author  of  Die  Ehre. 

The  failure  of  Sodoms  Ende  made  Sudermann  more 
careful.  In  Die  Heimat  (1893)  he  reverted  to  his  first 
well-approved  style  of  connecting  an  exciting  action 
with  a  description  of  present  day  conditions  so  that  the 
inherent  contrasts  come  out  in  directly  effective  clashes. 
While  in  Sodoms  Ende  he  was  a  partisan,  here  he  leaves 
his  own  conception  of  people  and  events  more  in  doubt. 
By  doing  this  he  fulfils,  it  is  true,  a  requirement  of 
Naturalism  but  takes  from  the  drama  the  substance 
of  a  basic  idea.  The  theme  is  very  cleverly  presented 
so  that  a  mild  light  falls  on  the  old-fashioned  society 
with  its  limited  view-points,  its  rigid  but  at  the  same 
time  firm  and  bracing  ethics,  its  self-sacrificing  spirit 
and  its  modesty,  while  the  newly  gained  freedom  of  the 


HERMANN  SUDERMANN  157 

individual  who  strives  upward  by  his  own  effort  is 
woven  about  with  a  gleaming  splendor.  In  Magda,  the 
representative  of  this  new  nature,  he  has  created  a  cap- 
tivating role  and  has  besides  scattered  throughout  the 
whole  play  such  a  great  variety  of  striking  external 
effects  that  he  has  given  to  the  stage  a  work  whose 
international  success  has  only  been  attained,  among  all 
German  dramas,  by  Kotzebue's  Menschenhass  und  Reue. 

But  in  this  fact  lies  the  proof  also  that  the  inherent 
import,  which  can  be  easily  comprehended  by  any  class 
of  public  of  any  nation,  is  not  so  very  deep.  In  this 
play  it  is  of  course  not  a  question  of  great  and  general 
human  relations  but  of  such  as  grow  out  of  the  life 
of  specifically  unimportant  people  of  the  present  day 
in  Germany.  At  the  same  time,  however,  the  almost 
unexampled  success  of  Die  Heimat  furnished  proof 
that  conscientious  observance  of  reality  and  its  repro- 
duction with  a  proper  adaptation  to  the  conditions  of 
stage  effect  afford  the  means  of  charming  large  audiences 
and  that  without  transgressing  against  the  nature  of 
art.  Therefore  one  ought  not  to  condemn  this  middle 
class,  to  which  Die  Heimat  belongs,  so  disdainfully  as 
often  happens. 

Once  more  Sudermann  attempted  to  picture  a  definite 
social  class  in  Die  Schmetterlingsschlacht  (1893)  and 
at  the  same  time  allowed  accurate  calculation  of  the 
external  factors  of  the  action  to  drop  into  the  back- 
ground; once  more  the  result  was  at  first  rejection, 
which  later  indeed  gave  way  to  kindly  and  continued 
applause  because  of  growing  recognition  of  the  good 
properties  of  the  play.  Repentantly  Sudermann  bowed 
to  the  wish  of  his  public  and  from  now  on  was  sub- 
missive. All  grand  and  bold  desires,  all  artistic  pur- 


158  GERMAN  DRAMA 

poses  were  permitted  to  hold  sway  only  as  long  as  the 
prevailing  taste  and  the  external  effect  conditioned  by 
it  was  not  prohibited.  Only  in  one  single  instance, 
when  a  lucky  chance  did  not  demand  the  intervention 
of  this  highest  court,  did  he  succeed  in  another  work 
of  fine  quality.  The  one-act  play,  Fritzchen,  inserted 
in  an  otherwise  unimportant  cycle  of  one-act  plays, 
Morituri  ( 1897 ) ,  shows  how  an  effeminate  young  fellow, 
through  lack  of  firm  grip  and  because  of  the  rigidity 
of  the  idea  of  "honor,"  is  ruined  in  the  enforced  calling 
of  officer,  when  he  might  have  found  happiness  in  a 
quiet  everyday  life.  The  incident,  and  the  environ- 
ment as  well,  is  comprehended  in  its  deepest  import 
and  worked  out  very  effectively  with  a  few  strokes, 
the  emotional  effect  being  always  kept  in  view. 

All  the  rest  of  Sudermann's  dramas  after  Die  Schmet- 
terlingsschlacht  are  plays  aiming  at  effect.  The  first 
of  them,  Das  Gliick  im  Winkel  (1895),  avoids  at  the  end, 
with  difficulty  and  in  an  improbable  manner,  the  same 
conflict  that  is  carried  through  logically  to  its  tragic 
issue  in  Fritzchen.  It  aims  at  awakening  the  belief 
that,  for  the  gentle  husband  whom  a  brutal  hand  has 
torn  from  his  dream  of  happiness  and  for  the  wife 
who  has  destroyed  their  married  life,  companionship  is 
still  possible  on  the  ruins  of  their  partnership. 

After  the  failure  of  Naturalism,  when  the  historical 
problem-drama  seemed  to  be  the  order  of  the  day, 
Sudermann  tried  in  Johannes  (1898),  with  insufficient 
powers,  to  depict  the  portentous  times  before  the  appear- 
ance of  Christ  and  to  place  the  hero  between  the  setting 
and  the  new  rising  world.  For  the  decadent  repre- 
sentatives of  a  depraved  and  decayed  antique  culture 
he  could  effectively  employ  the  colors  from  Sodoms 


HERMANN  SUDERMANN  159 

Ende,  but  he  did  not  succeed  in  entering  into  an  appre- 
ciation of  the  prophetic  childhood  of  developing  Chris- 
tendom, so  that  the  reflection  of  the  blood-red  sinking 
sun  of  the  ancient  world  and  of  the  gently  rising  mild 
constellation  of  the  new  produced  only  an  unsteady  flick- 
ering. The  effort  to  combine  the  description  of  the 
inherent  contrast  of  two  ages  with  the  accumulated 
external  impressions,  which  seem  to  Sudermann  indis* 
pensable,  resulted  in  a  mixture  which  possibly  might 
dazzle  at  the  moment  but  must  soon  be  recognized  as 
inartistic  and  immoral. 

The  Drei  Beiherfedern  (1898)  is  just  as  confused, 
and  again  attempted  unsuccessfully  to  entice  the  spec- 
tator into  a  distant  world.  Because  the  present  seemed 
to  long  to  get  back  to  the  mysterious  fairy-world  of 
Romanticism,  Sudermann  now  offered  a  fairy-play,  in- 
termingled with  symbolical  elements,  but  this  domain 
was  sealed  to  the  clear-headed  poet.  He  quickly  turned 
his  back  upon  it  and  directed  himself  to  the  present, 
which  by  the  way,  is  the  real  theatre  of  his  work. 

The  great  and  principal  question  of  the  present  is 
how  the  primitive  instincts  or  the  freedom  won  by  con- 
scious will  power  have  to  be  correlated  to  the  narrow 
forms  safeguarded  by  reverence  and  the  rigid  tradi- 
tional ethics  of  society.  This  becomes  the  chief  interest 
in  his  following  works.  While  in  the  more  meritorious 
JoJiannisfeuer  (1899)  the  innate  power  of  the  impulses 
is  destroyed  in  the  conflict  with  the  prevailing  view  of 
life,  Es  lebe  das  Leben  (1902)  makes  the  desire  for 
happiness  felt  by  the  more  gifted  character  conclude 
a  compromise  with  Society  and  its  ethics  which  brings 
blessing  to  him  and  to  others.  The  love  of  the  wife 
who,  with  a  not  improbable  cleverness,  succeeds  in  find- 


160  GERMAN  DRAMA 

ing  this  tortuous  road  to  what  was  in  her  judgment  a 
worthy  existence,  elevates  the  man  of  her  heart  and 
they  both  stand  on  the  heights  of  a  ripe  art  of  living, 
after  they  have  conquered  their  passions.  By  a  blind 
chance  the  secret  of  their  intimacy  is  discovered  and 
the  wife  sacrifices  herself  instead  of  the  lover. 

Sturmgeselle  Sokrates  (1903)  belongs  again  to  the 
plays  not  rare  with  Sudermann  which  terminate  without 
any  profit,  for  the  reason  that  a  fine  original  thought 
is  made  coarse  and  distorted  in  the  straining  after  rude 
effects.  Certainly  a  gentle  hand  could  have  made  a 
warm,  cheerful  and  touching  figure  of  the  man  of  forty- 
eight  years  whose  ideals  had  become  inelastic.  So  also 
in  Stein  unter  Steinen  (1903)  there  was  no  need  of 
making  merely  a  melodramatic  theatrical  figure  out  of 
the  noble  murderer  Biegler  who,  after  his  release  from 
the  reformatory,  has  to  suffer  so  grievously  from  the 
prejudices  of  the  members  of  his  guild.  How  well 
Anzengruber  knew  how  to  get  at  the  bottom  of  a  similar 
motive  in  Fleck  auf  der  Ehr'!  But  the  necessary  cour- 
age in  quest  of  truth  in  such  problems  is  rarely  in  accord 
with  the  taste  of  the  public  and  there  result  those  in- 
credible conclusions  which  do  violence  to  all  finer  artistic 
feelings  and  which,  by  a  fortunate  turn,  dragged  in  by 
main  force,  open  up  the  prospect  of  the  happy  solution 
so  indispensable  to  the  superficial  perceptions  of  the 
average  public. 

When  a  man  of  great  talents  like  Sudermann  conde- 
scends to  such  expedients,  he  certainly  does  not  do  it 
voluntarily  and  the  fault  lies  more  with  the  low  con- 
dition of  artistic  taste  than  with  him.  And  further, 
what  in  him  is  criticized  severely  as  an  unpardonable 
moral  defect,  has  been  at  all  times  an  accompaniment 


PLAYWRIGHTS  OF  THE  PRESENT  DAY        161 

of  creative  work  for  the  stage,  just  as  it  has  been  im- 
possible for  writers  with  the  greatest  gifts  to  carry 
out  their  great  purposes  in  defiance  of  the  public.  In 
this  they  have  scarcely  ever  succeeded  directly,  or  have 
been  unable  to  combine  genuine  artistic  power  with  a 
regard  for  the  taste  of  the  times,  which  none  of  the 
great  ones  have  ever  lost  sight  of,  neither  Shakespeare, 
nor  Moliere,  nor  Schiller,  If  only  an  author  does  not 
condescend  to  flatter  the  likings  of  the  public  which 
are  contrary  to  the  rules  of  art,  if  only  a  sound  germ 
and  an  honest  striving  after  truth  is  not  lacking  in 
his  works,  it  is  not  permissible  to  deny  them  the  rank 
of  works  of  art  solely  because  of  a  shrewd  calculation 
on  popular  effect.  To  be  sure,  the  mightiest  dramatic 
talents  succeed  in  combining  the  unconscious  with  this 
reasonable  calculation,  so  that  their  works  appear  as 
the  products  of  an  inward  compulsion  uninfluenced  by 
any  regard  for  externals,  but  these  perfect  dramas  are 
too  rare  to  supply  the  daily  needs  of  the  stage.  Suder- 
mann  deserves  commendation  that  he  alone  of  all  living 
authors  understands  how  to  satisfy  this  need  with  the 
greatest  technical  skill. 

PLAYWRIGHTS  OF  THE   PRESENT  DAY 

There  is  in  German  literary  circles  a  small  but  power- 
ful party  which  condemns  unconditionally,  as  treachery 
to  art,  any  compromise  with  traditional  forms,  or  any 
yielding  to  the  desire  of  the  public  for  theatrical  effect. 
To  these  critics  Sudermann,  the  most  successful  of  the 
stage  writers  of  the  present  day,  is  most  distasteful 
and  every  one  of  his  works  on  its  appearance  is  attacked 
by  them  with  the  greater  virulence,  the  greater  its 


162  GERMAN  DRAMA 

success  has  boon.  They  condemn  his  "manufacture" 
unconditionally,  but  justly  only  when  he  places  it  at 
the  service  of  low  ideals.  His  theatrical  ability  and 
accurate  technique  are  certainly  no  fault.  And  yet  it 
often  has  the  appearance  as  if  in  it,  in  and  for  itself, 
there  were  something  objectionable.  The  contempt  for 
outward  form,  peculiar  to-  the  Germans,  which  has 
robbed  so  many  of  their  best  writers  of  success  on 
the  stage,  easily  conduces  to  Ihe  idea  of  seeing  some- 
thing ignoble  or  undignified  and  speculative  in  its 
possession.  There  is  really  no  occasion  whatever  for 
this  judgment. 

Such  kindly  pleasant  pictures  as  ERNST  WICHERT 
offered  to  the  public  in  a  long  series  are  surely  not 
hurtful  food.  His  dramatic  writings  began  as  early 
as  1858  and  especially  in  the  field  of  the  finer  comedy 
he  obtained  charming  effects,  as  in  Ein  Schritt  vom 
Wege  (1871),  Der  Frewnd  des  Fursten  (1879)  and 
Post  Festum  (1890).  ADOLF  WILBRANDT,  in  his  Meister 
von  Palmyra  (1889),  produced  a  thought-drama  beauti- 
ful in  form  and  very  successful  in  spite  of  its  undramatic 
structure.  He  provided  light  entertainment  without 
any  serious  purpose  in  his  fine  comedy,  Der  Unter- 
staatssekretar  (1891). 

This  is  really  the  field  in  which  LUDWIG  FULDA'S 
charming  talents  are  well  displayed.  With  a  comedy 
in  verse,  Die  Aufrichtigen  (1883),  he  first  showed  his 
unusual  cleverness  in  form,  which  since  then  has  risen 
to  genius,  especially  in  his  translation  of  Moliere's  chief 
works  (1892)  and  of  Rostand's  fine  comedies,  such  as 
Les  Romanesques  (1895)  and  Cyrano  de  Bergerac 
(1898).  The  graceful  but  too  very  hastily  sketched 
plays,  Die  Zunllingsschwester  (1900)  and  Novella  d' 


PLAYWRIGHTS  OF  THE  PRESENT  DAY        163 

Andrea  (1903),  also  prove  this.  When  he  tries  to  give 
form  to  serious  conditions  of  the  times  or  even  to  write 
historical  tragedies,  as  in  Das  verlorene  Paradies  (1890), 
Die  Sklavin  (1891),  Herostrat  (1898)  and  Maskerade 
(1904),  his  powers  fail  him.  For  the  fairy-drama  his 
inventive  imagination  is  also  insufficient  and  in  vain 
does  he  try  to  cover  up  the  lack  of  it  by  neat  witticisms 
and  brillant  form.  In  spite  of  this  the  dramatic  fairy 
story,  Der  Talisman  (1892),  was  the  most  successful 
of  his  works  because  it  came  out  just  when  Naturalism 
had  awakened  a  great  longing  for  charm  and  depth  of 
thought.  A  certain  reality  also  contributed  to  the  great 
success  which  far  surpassed  the  real  worth  of  the  play. 
With  later  works  of  a  similar  nature  Fulda  could  gain 
no  influence,  while  his  comedies,  Die  Kameraden  (1894), 
Jugendfreunde  (1897),  were  as  before  greeted  with  ap- 
plause whenever  they  were  not  altogether  too  lacking 
in  substance  as  was  Kaltwasser  (1902).  FRIEDRICH 
ADLER  also  deserves  mention  as  a  clever  versifier  and 
adapter  of  Spanish  comedies,  as  Zwei  Eisen  im  Feuer 
(1900)  after  Calderon  and  Dan  Gil  (1902)  after  "Tirso 
de  Molina." 

The  dramatists  who  make  use  of  the  life  of  the 
present  for  theatrical  effect  in  serious  and  light  comedy 
are  strongly  influenced  by  the  desire  for  a  faithful  re- 
production of  reality.  Such  are  HERMANN  FABER- 
GOLDSCHMIDT  in  Ewige  Liebe  (1897)  and  Frau  Lili 
(1902)  and  GEORG  ENGEL  in  Die  goldene  Luge  (1892), 
Uber  den  Wassern  (1901)  and  Im  Hafen  (1904).  But 
these  authors  are  altogether  too  lacking  in  the  cap- 
tivating power  of  original  talent  for  the  stage  and  this 
prevents  their  purpose  of  influencing  the  public  by 
an  outwardly  effective  treatment  of  the  serious  problems 


164  GERMAN  DRAMA 

of  the  times  from  being  crowned  with  any  groat  show 
of  success. 

What  these  latter  lack,  FELIX  PHILIPPI  possesses  with- 
out doubt  in  the  highest  degree.  He  knows  exactly  all 
the  expedients,  great  and  small,  with  which  the  appear- 
ance of  an  action  can  be  imposed  upon  an  audience 
and  the  feelings  of  the  great  mass  stirred  up  and  he 
makes  use,  without  any  artistic  scruple,  of  the  vulgar 
interest  in  the  most  recent  events  of  the  day,  or  of 
curiosity,  to  get  a  glance  behind  the  scenes  of  con- 
temporary history.  By  transferring  his  "actual"  ma- 
terials to  another  sphere,  from  the  political  to  the 
industrial  for  example,  he  disguises  the  facts  and  char- 
acters he  employs  only  so  lightly  that  a  cursory  glance 
penetrates  the  mask.  At  the  central  point  he  puts  some 
sort  of  stage-effect  that  will  shock  the  strongest  nerves 
and  in  this  way  produces  an  excitement  which,  because 
the  heart  is  never  touched,  is  felt  as  a  pleasant  charm 
by  those  who  seek  only  entertainment  from  the  stair*'. 
This  excitement,  however,  has  nothing  in  common  with 
any  kind  of  artistic  effect. 

With  still  greater  success  OTTO  ERNEST  (-SCHMIDT)  has 
trodden  the  road  to  sure  royalties,  when  in  his  Jugend 
von  heute  (1899),  which  gave  itself  in  addition  some 
airs  of  literary  authority,  he  helped  Philistinism  to 
victory  over  the  "moderns"  who,  in  distorted  pictures, 
were  given  over  to  ridicule.  In  this  play,  as  in  his  far 
weaker  comedies,  Flachsmann  ah  Erzieher  (1901), 
Gerechtigkeit  (1902)  and  Bannermann  (1904)  a  "pur- 
pose" was  intended  to  replace  the  insufficient  dramatic 
ability  of  the  otherwise  so  unerring  and  well-balanced 
author.  The  first  two  attempts  succeeded  indeed  be- 


PLAYWRIGHTS  OF  THE  PRESENT  DAY       165 

cause  of  a  clever  choice  of  theme,  but  in  the  end  these 
untruthful  exaggerations  will  not  maintain  their  hold 
especially  as  they  are  translated  so  clumsily  into  action. 

The  comedies  not  related  to  any  time  may  hope  for 
a  longer  period  of  life,  as  they  are  merely  to  amuse, 
whether  by  historical  anecdotes  as  in  Wie  die  Alien 
sung  en  (1895)  by  CARL  NIEMANN,  or  by  a  sort  of  local 
coloring,  as  in  the  comedies  of  RICHARD  SKOWRONNEK, 
Halali,  Die  stille  Wache  and  Waterkant  (1904).  In 
these  everything  depends  upon  discovering  a  hitherto 
unworked  field  which  appeals  to  the  great  public  and 
by  its  new  charms  bribing  the  judgment.  Most  suc- 
cessfully was  this  managed  by  WILHELM  MEYER-FORSTER 
with  the  dramatized  novel,  Alt  Heidelberg  (1898),  which 
compounded  sentimentality  and  Heidelberg  student-life, 
crowned  with  its  halo  of  poetry,  to  make  the  very 
tastiest  theatrical  mixture ;  also  by  ARNO  HOLZ,  aided  by 
OSWALD  JERSCHKE,  in  the  high  school  play,  Traumulus 
(1904). 

In  this  mixture  there  was  still  lacking  two  ingredients 
to  drive  out  even  the  last  thought  of  any  artistic  pur- 
pose: the  comic  of  situation  at  all  costs  and  empty  play 
on  words,  both  of  which  aim  merely  at  exciting  peals 
of  laughter.  Wherever  they  hold  sway,  all  regard  for 
a  connected  plot  and  for  characterization  vanishes,  all 
trace  of  an  idea  is  lacking  and  at  most  the  semblance 
of  proper  feelings  is  awakened  by  the  aid  of  false 
sentimentality.  In  regard  to  such  a  play,  whoever  ven- 
tures to  raise  even  the  most  modest  claims  to  good  taste 
is  laughed  out  of  court  by  the  author  who  carries  on 
his  writing  according  to  principles  of  the  unscrupulous 
merchant  and  like  him  has  only  gain  in  view.  This 


166  GERMAN  DRAMA 

class  of  plays  occupies  the  chief  place  on  the  German 
stage  to  judge  from  the  number  of  times  they  are 
acted  and  their  typical  representative  is  OSKAE  BLU- 

MENTHAL. 

At  the  beginning  of  his  career  he  pursued  more  serious 
purposes:  his  comedies,  Der  Probepfeil  (1882)  and  Die 
grosse  Glocke  (1883),  his  drama,  Ein  Tropfen  Gift 
(1885)  could  still  rank  as  carefully  executed,  enter- 
taining and  exciting  society-plays,  although  everything 
in  them  was  already  made  subject  to  theatrical  effect. 
But  later  Blumenthal  kept  lowering  his  aim.  He  now 
carried  on  the  business  usually  with  the  actor  Kadelburg, 
and  with  their  farce,  1m  weissen  Ross'l  (1898),  the  two 
reached  a  total  of  performances  never  before  equalled. 
Kadelburg  was  an  advisor  who  knew  the  stage  and  had 
even  earlier  been  connected  with  the  humorist  FRANZ 
VON  SCHONTHAN  in  Die  beriihmte  Frau  (1887),  Zwei 
gliickliche  Tage  (1893)  and  Der  Herr  Senator  (1894). 
Schonthan  further  ' '  composed ' '  with  GUSTAV  VON  MOSEB 
a  number  of  farces,  such  as  Krieg  im  Frieden  (1879), 
and  with  his  brother  Paul,  Der  Raub  der  Sabinennnen 
(1878),  which,  because  of  the  Saxon  dialect  of  a  strolling 
director  and  a  rich  collection  of  stage  anecdotes,  created 
extraordinary  amusement.  Then  when,  after  the  stormy 
days  of  Naturalism,  the  gracious  morn  of  poetry  seemed 
about  to  dawn,  Sehonthan  modernized,  with  Koppel- 
Ellfeld,  the  historical  comedy  in  verse,  so  popular  at 
the  beginning  of  the  century,  such  as  Komtesse  Guckerl 
(1895),  Renaissance  (1896),  Die  goldene  Eva  (1896), 
by  dressing  up  in  the  clothes  of  earlier  days  and  in 
gayer  colors  the  customary  figures  and  situations  of  the 
modern  farce.  This  proceeding  was  also  imitated  by 
Blumenthal  with  success  in  Der  Schwur  der  Treue 


PLAYWRIGHTS  OF  THE  PRESENT  DAY       167 

(1905),  when  he  found  that  the  old-fashioned  farces 
were  no  longer  drawing  well. 

Other  double  firms,  like  Laufs  and  Jacoby,  Walther 
and  Stein,  competed  with  the  above-named  and  likewise 
gathered  in  large  sums.  They  delivered  factory-work 
without  any  stamp  of  personality,  calculated  for  whole- 
sale consumption.  All  questions  of  the  times  were 
anxiously  avoided  so  as  not  to  excite  offence  in  any 
listener;  all  higher  interests  had  to  be  excluded,  merely 
of  course  to  restrain  the  spectators  from  reflection  and 
even  the  coarsest  expedients  were  not  disdained  if  they 
had  power  to  excite  laughter.  As  compared  with  these 
plays  even  Kotzebue's  slight  comedies  are  still  to  be 
called  works  of  art  because  in  them  there  is  to  be  found 
at  least  superficial  characterization  and  a  plot  according 
to  a  definite  plan.  Likewise  the  French  farces,  justly 
condemned  so  severely  and  so  lacking  in  morality,  far 
surpass  the  clumsy  German  "manufactures,"  which  like 
them  aim  at  amusing,  by  their  careful  work,  their  sur- 
prising inventions  and  easy  even  if  frivolous  charm. 
England  alone  has  furnished  something  similar  in  its 
stupid  farces  (e.  g.  Charley's  Aunt  by  Thomas)  with 
their  circus  humor  which  is  also  applauded  in  Germany. 

But  even  these  do  not  touch  the  lowest  point  of  stage 
productions  in  the  present  day.  This  is  found  in  the 
degenerate  Berlin  farce  and  the  Vienna  operetta  where 
the  disgusting  exhibition  of  naked  women  is  joined 
to  the  other  absurdities. 

These  products  of  the  most  vulgar  scheming  do  not 
concern  the  history  of  dramatic  literature  but  they  must 
be  mentioned  so  as  to  characterize  the  low  condition  of 
taste  at  the  very  centres  of  intellectual  life.  For  only 
when  one  with  disgust  takes  them  into  consideration 


168  GERMAN  DRAMA 

does  one  recognize  the  hindrances  which  stand  in  the 
way  of  all  effort  to  maintain  the  old  and  to  create  a  new 
drama  of  a  nobler  kind. 

LITERARY  TENDENCIES  IN  PRESENT  DAY 
DRAMA 

Under  the  designation  "literary"  are  summed  up 
at  the  present  time  all  those  efforts  which  aim  to  advance 
literature  in  its  artistic  creative  work  but  which  are 
free  from  outward  regard  for  the  inclinations  of  the 
public,  and  free  from  the  constraint  of  tradition.  This 
point  of  view  is  the  only  common  one  from  which,  in  a 
summary  of  the  drama  of  the  present  day,  valuable  and 
independent  beginnings  and  productions  are  distin- 
guished from  the  great  mass  of  stage-plays. 

The  time  is  not  yet  ripe  for  an  historical  review 
of  the  development  of  the  drama  during  the  last  decade 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  There  are  too  many  pro- 
miscuous and  uncertain  movements  and  a  temporary 
disappearance  or  a  sudden  rise  does  not  in  any  way 
betoken  the  final  destiny  of  any  one  of  the  many  classes. 
Besides,  almost  all  dramatists  of  these  later  times  have 
made  trial  one  after  another  of  the  most  widely  differ- 
ent, often  diametrically  opposite  styles,  so  that  the  colors 
under  which  the  individual  writers  appear  are  for  the 
most  part  as  varied  as  the  whole  picture. 

In  this  there  are  prominent  at  first  in  the  beginning 
of  the  nineties  the  efforts  of  the  extreme  Naturalists 
who  were,  however,  not  able  to  get  a  secure  footing 
on  the  stage.  From  about  1892  the  scientific  and  social- 
istic basic  view-points  of  Naturalism  were  replaced  by 
the  enthusiastic  reception  of  the  aristocratic  teaching 


LITERARY  TENDENCIES  169 

of  the  poet-philosopher  Friedrich  Nietzsche.  In  another 
place  *  I  have  endeavored  to  paraphrase  the  nature  of 
this  in  the  following  words:  "Nietzsche  is  enthusiastic 
for  beauty  and  sees  in  the  masses  merely  the  tools  of 
the  great.  The  duty  of  mankind  according  to  him  is 
to  produce  unique  great  men,  philosophers,  artists, 
saints.  In  his  book,  Also  Sprach  Zaratkustra  (1883-92), 
he  develops  his  teaching  in  regard  to  the  superman, 
in  which  the  species  appears  on  a  higher  plane  of  de- 
velopment or  the  individual  raises  the  species  to  his 
level.  According  to  this  the  superman  arises  by  cul- 
tivation or  by  chance  at  the  close  of  a  long  ascending 
period  of  development.  As  lawgiver  and  inventor  he 
creates  new  ideals  in  all  fields  and  opposes  to  the  old 
Christian,  liberal  and  social  values  others  by  which 
is  guaranteed  to  the  individual  the  development  of  all 
his  powers  in  freedom  and  beauty.  Nietzsche  does  not, 
however,  end  up  in  anarchy,  but  in  aristocracy,  for 
he  gives  to  the  strong  the  right  to  rule  the  weak  and 
the  low. 

In  this  teaching  there  was  so  much  that  agrees  with 
Egoism  and  the  noble  desire  for  individual  freedom  and 
it  was  offered  in  such  a  seductive  dress  that  the  youth 
became  enthusiastic  and  applauded  Nietzsche  though 
without  understanding.  People  had  for  so  long  believed 
in  the  unconditional  authority  of  law  in  all  departments 
of  life  and  been  oppressed  by  it  and  the  ugly  had  only 
just  finished  celebrating  its  orgies  when  Zarathustra 
appeared  as  a  deliverer.  The  wonderful  language  in 
its  prophetic  speeches,  its  symbolism  and  aphorisms 
incited  even  to  superficial  imitation  and  the  great 

*  In  Spemann's  Das  goldene  Buch  der  Weltliteratur.  (L.  E. 
H.) 


170  GERMAN  DRAMA 

thought  of  a  new  world  of  heroic  beings  soon  took  root. 
Everyone  who  was  unwilling  to  set  bounds  to  his  actions 
and  thoughts  believed  that  he  might  consider  himself 
a  superman,  if  he  only  played  the  strong  man,  set 
regard  for  others  aside  and  made  an  outward  boast 
of  superior  refinement  in  spite  of  rudeness  of  heart. 

It  belongs  to  the  nature  of  the  ' '  upland  man ' '  that  he 
should  despise  the  lowlands  of  life  with  its  everyday 
bustle  and  its  dirt,  its  joys  and  sorrows,  all  too  modest 
for  him.  He  either  lives  out  his  own  life  in  the 
ruthless  egoism  of  the  "all-round"  man  of  the  Re- 
naissance and  employs  in  all  directions  the  surplus  of 
his  mental  and  bodily  powers,  while  unsparingly  tramp- 
ling underfoot  everything  that  is  sacred  to  others  or 
he  cherishes  only  in  his  heart  great  thoughts  which  do 
not  develop  into  practical  knowledge  but  through  his 
artistic  work  come  to  light  in  dark  mysterious  symbols 
as  hazily  as  they  dawn  upon  himself. 

The  magnificent  metaphors  and  the  self-created  style 
of  Nietzsche  offered  the  material  for  this  symbolism, 
which  is  filled  with  a  longing  for  the  unknown,  and 
with  the  feeling  of  the  great  mystic  unity  of  the  un- 
conscious in  man  and  in  nature. 

To  the  symbolists  this  uncertain  groping  in  the  night- 
regions  of  the  soul  seems  far  more  valuable  than  the 
bright  daylight  of  reasonable  conduct.  Complete  and 
passive  surrender  to  a  world  of  dreams  they  consider 
the  only  method  of  artistic  creation  and  enjoyment. 
Their  conception  of  art  comes  in  touch  with  that  of 
the  Romanticists  at  the  beginning  of  the  century  which 
was  likewise  swayed  by  the  loftiest  subjectivity  and  a 
longing  for  a  comprehension  of  the  unconscious. 

"New  Romanticism"  has  developed  out  of  Symbolism 


LITERARY  TENDENCIES  171 

since  about  1895  and  again  its  favorite  field  for  subjects 
is  the  fairy-story.  Its  aim  is  to  combine,  as  in  Novalis 
and  Tieck,  naivete  and  lofty  symbolism,  direct  expres- 
sion of  the  deepest  feelings  and  weighty  thought,  con- 
tempt for  the  age  and  an  ideal  picture  of  a  genuine  and 
loftier  humanity. 

The  acquisitions  of  psychological  science  in  the  nine- 
teenth century  anticipate  this  combination  of  the  most 
varied  objects  because  it  is,  after  all,  mere  self-revela- 
tion on  the  basis  of  a  keen  dissection  of  one 's  own  inner 
life.  At  the  same  time  these  New  Romanticists  derive 
advantage  from  the  better  aids  for  the  suggestion  of 
artistic  impressions  which  the  technique  of  the  Natural- 
ists has  produced. 

They,  too,  aim  at  giving  pictures  and  despise  dramatic 
art  of  the  older  style.  But  while  Naturalism  at  least 
offered  reality  in  its  palpable  brutality,  here  everything 
dissolves  into  airy  floating  creations  and  only  a  super- 
fine feeling  can  follow  up  all  the  emotions  of  the  poets 
in  their  spirit-like  utterances.  Therefore  this  aristo- 
cratic, profound  art  which  surpasses  all  earlier  tech- 
nique, is  limited  by  its  nature  to  a  quite  narrow  circle. 
Its  creations  cannot  possibly  foreshadow  the  drama  of 
the  future. 

It  would  seem  that  for  the  present  they  are  the  last 
stage  by  way  of  attempts  to  create  a  new  drama  without 
any  regard  to  tradition.  And  yet  the  circle  of  possi- 
bilities is  unlimited  and  who  can  say  whether  the  near 
future  will  not  produce  a  literature  which  will  solve 
the  problem  of  giving  to  the  present  its  own  peculiar 
style  of  art. 

To-day,  indeed,  in  place  of  the  pleasurable  anticipa- 
tion which  prevailed  ten  years  ago,  the  spirit  of  resigna- 


172  GERMAN  DRAMA 

tion  seems  to  have  come.  The  works  of  Shakespeare, 
Goethe,  Schiller  and  Grillparzer  are  once  more  plainly 
in  the  foreground.  Desire  for  the  impression  of  suita- 
bility to  the  times  has  ceased,  the  historical  drama  and 
the  problem-play  are  celebrating  their  resurrection  in 
purified  form.  The  dramatic  art  of  which  Joseph  Kainz 
is  now  the  greatest  representative  is  purifying  and 
supplementing  in  a  modern  sense  the  characters  of  the 
great  plays  of  the  past  by  covering  the  outlines  marked 
out  by  the  poet  with  the  transparent  colors  of  uncon- 
scious, nervous  moods.  To  be  sure,  this  disturbs  a  part 
of  the  clear  plastic  of  these  works  of  art  but,  as  a 
recompense,  it  creates  new  charms  more  acceptable  to 
the  sentiment  of  the  present  day. 

At  the  same  time  this  combination  is  after  all  but 
a  makeshift  towards  getting  over  the  lack  of  living 
modern  dramas.  The  classic  drama  demands  that  it 
be  played  and  felt  in  the  spirit  of  its  time  and  besides, 
we  are  still  able  to  enjoy  it.  It  has  not  lost  its  ethical 
and  artistic  effect,  indeed  its  value  is  to  be  estimated 
higher  than  formerly,  because  it  offers  a  perfected  form 
and  a  developed  style,  just  what  the  present  lacks.  The 
absence  of  those  lately  acquired  technical  art-devices, 
which  produce  complete  illusion  without  any  effort  on 
the  part  of  the  spectator,  is  rather  to  be  called  an  ad- 
vantage in  so  far  as  the  imagination  is  spurred  on  to 
great  activity  and  the  incitements  having  the  strongest 
effect  on  the  stage,  viz:  interest  in  the  plot  and  the 
characters  and  the  contents  of  thought  and  feeling, 
are  not  encroached  upon  and  weakened  by  indifferent 
externals  and  excessively  refined  moods. 

The  theatre  comes  only  into  consideration  as  a  directly 
influential  factor  of  elevating  pleasure  and  of  higher 


LITERARY  TENDENCIES  173 

education  in  so  far  as  it  finds  ready  in  the  thought  and 
feelings  of  the  spectator  a  ground  capable  of  receiving 
its  gifts.  Although  the  new  forms  offer  to  the  artis- 
tically refined  spirit  greater  satisfaction,  though  the 
profounder  heart-life  and  the  more  impressionable  feel- 
ings mean,  as  they  doubtless  do,  a  valuable  acquisition, 
so  long  as  the  understanding  of  the  works  produced  by 
their  aid  is  limited  to  such  small  circles  as  has  hitherto 
been  the  case,  they  must  not  presume  to  despise  the 
older  art,  as  if  it  were  worthless.  To  measure  works 
of  art  by  the  standard  of  suitability  to  the  times  is 
evidence  of  a  lack  of  culture  and  of  the  historic  sense. 
Art  fulfils  its  lofty  mission  only  when  it  brings  us  out 
of  the  narrow  circle  of  our  own  limited  existence  into  its 
boundless  and  timeless  dominion  where  we  forget  life 
and  its  limitations  and  by  sympathy  are  absorbed  in 
the  poetic  production  whether  its  outer  form  be  bor- 
rowed from  a  past  century  or  from  the  present. 

In  contrast  with  the  Decadence  which,  interested  for 
so  long  in  a  one-sided  culture  of  beauty,  had  lost  all 
connection  with  the  life  of  the  present,  Art  now  recog- 
nizes that  its  chief  mission  is  to  give  form  to  the  ideas 
which  hold  sway  in  its  own  time  and  so  serve  truth 
and  beauty  at  the  same  time.  It  must  therefore  keep 
its  finger  on  the  pulse  of  its  times.  But  where  is  the 
beat  to  be  felt  most  distinctly?  The  majority  thinks 
at  the  centres  of  public  life  with  their  increased  sensi- 
tiveness, their  flooding  life,  their  authoritative  influences 
in  so  many  directions.  However,  the  man  who  considers 
the  Germany  of  to-day  dispassionately  sees  that  the 
cities,  which  have  grown  so  rapidly  to  an  immense  size, 
do  not  represent  German  nature,  that  in  them  views 
prevail  which  are  modified  by  international  influence  or 


174  GERMAN  DRAMA 

else  certain  lines  of  German  character  are  peculiarly 
exaggerated  and  twisted.  The  drama  especially  cannot 
become  a  great  popular  factor  if  it  follows  the  nervous 
movements  of  the  life  of  a  large  city.  It  must  go  down 
deep  into  the  soul  of  the  people  to  find  out  what  in- 
fluences them  and  what  they  desire.  This  simple  knowl- 
edge has  been  obscured  by  the  fact  that  the  chief  cities, 
especially  Berlin,  Vienna  and  Munich,  have  now  become 
the  depots  of  artistic  work.  Writers  imagine  they  hear 
the  moving  of  the  spirit  of  the  times  wrhen  they  catch 
the  notes  of  the  asphalted  streets  and  suppose  that  this 
combination  of  the  hurry  for  gain  and  of  the  desire  for 
sensation  means  a  new  and  loftier  step  in  national 
development. 

To-day  that  is  fortunately  not  yet  true  but  the  mistake 
is  comprehensible  and  continually  being  confirmed  be- 
cause the  mass  of  energy  collected  in  the  metropolitan 
cities  seemingly  places  the  rest  of  Germany  in  subjection 
and  it  is  continually  increased  by  the  attraction  which 
it  exercises  on  all  progressive  elements. 

Especially  in  the  field  of  dramatic  creation  and  of 
theatrical  life  this  tendency  is  most  clearly  noticeable. 
If  one  were  to  judge  according  to  the  plays  which  have 
been  given  most  frequently  in  these  latter  years,  one 
would  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  culture  of  the 
large  cities  had  repressed  every  peculiarity  of  the  Ger- 
man races,  all  traditional  customs  and  morality  and 
put  in  their  place  a  ruthless  assertion  of  individuality 
unhindered  by  reverence  and  religion  or  the  ability 
to  react  on  all  external  impressions.  But  this  conclu- 
sion is  false.  In  the  "provinces,"  as  the  litterateurs 
of  Berlin  by  preference  slightingly  call  the  rest  of 
Germany,  the  reflections  of  perverted  metropolitan  life 


DRAMATIC  WRITERS  175 

are,  with  low  curiosity  or  ignorant  admiration,  con- 
sidered something  strange.  They  mislead  indeed  the 
artistic  and  moral  judgment,  but  they  find  no  echo  in 
the  feelings  of  the  spectators  to  whom  Schiller's  works 
still  continue  to  mean  what  is  loftiest  and  to  whom  the 
comedies  of  Benedix  unfortunately  appear  far  more 
congenial  and  entertaining  than  Der  Biberpelz. 

DRAMATIC  WRITERS  OF  TO-DAY 

From  what  has  been  said  it  follows  that  the  dramatists 
who  now  are  striving  to  solve  new  problems  with  new 
means  are  all  to  be  considered  as  precursors,  just  as 
the  "Storm  and  Stress"  writers  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury preceded  the  classic  writers.  Goethe  and  Schiller 
succeeded  at  that  time  in  working  out  to  a  clear  vision 
while  their  comrades  wasted  their  powers  in  vain  effort. 
So,  too,  on  the  literary  battle-fields  of  to-day,  so  many 
hopeful  and  talented  writers  have  already  fruitlessly 
dissipated  their  energies,  while  of  the  survivors  not 
one  has  as  yet  brought  home  the  crown  of  victory. 

The  brief  onset  of  Naturalism  claimed  the  greatest 
number  of  victims.  GERHART  HAUPTMANN,  the  prom- 
inent leader,  remained  unscathed.  At  his  side  fought 
WILHELM  WEIGAND  in  Der  Vater  (1894),  and  later 
delineated  in  masterly  style  the  mighty  lordly  men  of 
the  Cinque-cento,  as  in  Lorenzino  (1897)  and  Die  Re- 
naissance (1899)  ;  also  the  youthful  GEORG  HIRSCHFELD, 
who  squandered  his  talent  for  accurate  observation  and 
description,  shown  in  the  one-act  play,  Zu  Hause  (1895), 
on  the  correct  reproduction  of  the  ugly  without  any 
other  end  in  view  and  remained  longest  true  to  the  old 
flag  of  Naturalism,  as  in  Die  Mutter  (1896),  Agnes 


176  GERMAN  DRAMA 

Jordan  (1898),  Pauline  (1899)  and  Nebeneinander 
(1904).  He  lacks  the  ability  to  combine  his  individual 
impressions  into  larger  scenes  and  to  breathe  into  them 
the  power  of  independent  life.  For  a  time  he  attempted, 
but  unsuccessfully,  to  cross  over  to  the  popular  fairy- 
drama  in  Der  Weg  zum  Licht  (1902)  and  last  tried  his 
hand  at  comedy  in  Spatfriihling  (1906),  also  without 
success. 

On  the  other  side  of  Hauptmann  stood  MAX  HALBE. 
In  Die  Jugend  (1893)  he  took  the  subject  of  the  first 
sudden  development  of  the  sexual  impulses.  He  had 
thus  chosen  a  subject  than  which  none  could  be  more 
favorable  for  impressionist  reproduction.  Into  a  sin- 
gle moment  is  crowded  the  development  of  the  sud- 
denly growing  passionate  feelings  and  what  seems  new 
in  every  single  case  is  in  truth  a  typical  incident  in 
the  truest  sense  arising  from  the  most  primitive  im- 
pulses. Halbe  made  also  a  happy  hit  in  that  he  placed 
the  lovers  in  the  simplest  environment  and  did  not 
obscure  the  developments  of  the  physical  life  by  any 
conditions  of  higher  culture.  Her  surrender  to  over- 
powering impulses  brought  the  girl,  who  is  sketched 
with  charming  freshness  and  without  any  false  naivete, 
to  the  inevitable  conflict  with  her  innate  moral  ideas 
which  had  been  strengthened  by  training  and  her  lot 
in  life  and  the  idyll  becomes  an  inexorable  tragic  fate. 
Even  those  who  took  a  negative  position  in  regard  to 
Naturalism  were  deeply  moved  by  his  drama. 

Never  after  did  Halbe  make  a  like  impression. 
Through  his  comedy,  Der  Walpurgistag  (1902),  there 
befell  him  the  fate  of  the  poet  Ansgar  whose  one  single 
capture  of  the  prize  of  victory  became  his  ruin.  He 
tried  his  hand  without  success  at  the  rhymed  comic 


DRAMATIC  WRITERS  177 

play,  Der  Amerikafahrer  (1904),  or  aimed  at  making 
the  mighty  power  of  a  superman  credible  in  Der 
Eroberer  (1899).  To  the  heartfelt  description  of  an 
invigorating  home-sickness  in  Mutter  Erde  (1897)  his 
warm  and  honorable  nature  could  give  faithful  but  not 
dramatic  expression  and  Der  Strom  (1903),  the  shallow 
but  clever  revision  of  the  older  Eisgang,  can  not  be 
compared  with  Die  Jugend. 

An  amusing  but  likewise  undramatic  description  of 
those  literary  circles  in  which  Naturalism  was  first  cul- 
tivated was  given  by  Ernst  von  Wolzogen  in  his  comedy, 
Das  Lumpengesindel  (1892).  The  cheery  wretchedness 
gave  origin  to  a  series  of  diverting  and  touching  pic- 
tures of  conditions,  but  again  there  was  a  lack  of 
everything  that  would  make  a  perfect  work  of  art  or 
satisfy  the  most  modest  demands  of  a  specifically  dra- 
matic nature. 

OTTO  ERICH  HARTLEBEN  also  possessed  genuine  humor. 
The  youthful  impudence  of  students  sets  its  mark  on 
the  most  of  his  stories,  while  with  greater  adaptability 
than  the  most  of  the  Naturalists  he  succeeded  in  putting 
effectively  on  the  stage  the  modern  people  of  the  large 
city  as  in  Ang'ele  (1891)  and  Hanna  Jagert  (1893). 
The  little  comedy,  Die  sittliche  Forderung,  was  a  capital 
and  intrinsically  very  true  parody  of  Sudermann's 
Heimat,  but  in  his  most  successful  work,  Rosenmontag 
(1901),  he  has  evidently  become  a  follower.  According 
to  the  well-tried  recipe  he  has  combined  in  this  work 
outwardly  faithful  descriptions  from  the  life  of  a  certain 
circle — here  the  officer's  world — with  complaisancy  to 
the  demands  of  the  public.  In  the  episodes  his  ex- 
traordinary humorous  talent  is  again  shown. 

With   genuine   humor   but   without   dramatic   power 


178  GERMAN  DRAMA 

JOSEF  RUEDERER  succeeded  in  depicting  a  very  diverting 
episode  of  Bavarian  country-life  in  his  comedy,  Die 
Fahnenweihe  (1894).  LUDWIG  THOMA  drew  from  the 
same  soil  stronger  satirical  effects  in  his  Lokalbahn 
(1902). 

Without  such  decided  individuality  as  the  preceding 
a  number  of  additional  authors  have  with  naturalistic 
devices  sketched  for  the  stage  their  pictures  of  conditions. 
Some  count  only  on  the  charm  of  the  faithful  description 
of  some  place  in  the  lowlands  of  life  and  approximate 
the  folk-play,  the  subjects  of  which  they  treat  less  con- 
siderately and  with  finer  description  of  the  emotions,  as 
for  instance  JOHANNES  SCHLAF  in  Meister  Olze  (1892). 
In  contrast  to  him,  the  Vienna  writers  FELIX  DORMANN 
(really  Biedermann)  in  Ledige  Leute  and  PHILIP  LANG- 
MANN  in  Bartel  Turaser  (1897)  do  not  at  all  disdain 
the  coarse  excitement  of  strong  effects  and  melodrama. 

The  primitive  power  of  the  impulses,  undiminished  by 
any  of  the  external  forms  which  had  made  Anzengruber 
prefer  country  conditions,  often  attracts  the  dramatists 
of  the  present  day  also  to  describe  them  and  yet  there  is 
left  a  general  impression  of  repulsive  ugliness  and  of 
lack  of  dramatic  life,  as  in  the  plays  by  Gerhart  Haupt- 
mann's  brother  Carl,  Waldleute  (1895)  and  Ephraims 
Breite  (1898).  Like  Gerhart  he  also  did  sacrifice  to 
the  modern  drama  of  moods  in  Marianne  (1894),  to 
the  symbolistic  verse-drama  in  Die  Bergschmiede  (1904) 
and  to  the  elegantly  written  peasant  comedy  in  Die 
Austreibung  (1905),  always  however  without  success. 

The  dramatists  are  more  numerous  who  describe  by 
preference  the  degenerate  instincts,  the  diseased  and 
decrepit  will  of  the  educated  man  of  culture.  In  these 
the  external  world  is  no  longer  of  chief  importance. 


DRAMATIC  WRITERS  179 

It  gives  only  the  preliminary  conditions  for  the  dis- 
tracted feelings,  the  representation  of  which  is  an  end 
in  itself  and  for  which  the  Italian,  Gabriel  D'Annunzio, 
first  gave  the  model  by  his  richly  colored  descriptions 
of  sensuous  conditions.  He  combines  real  formative 
powers  with  a  highly  poetic  •  and  characteristic  language 
which  brings  even  the  most  foreign  subject,  surrounded 
by  the  magic  of  mysterious  symbolism,  near  to  his 
hearers  by  the  influence  of  suggestion. 

The  Lyric  poet,  RICHARD  DEHMEL,  had  a  like  aim  in 
his  tragedy,  Der  Mitmensch  (1895),  which  was  a  total 
failure.  In  it  he  described  the  sufferings  of  the  medi- 
ocre, slavishly  devoted  brother  of  the  ideal  superman 
and  the  society  opposing  them,  which  is  distorted  even 
to  caricature.  ERNST  ROSMER  (Elsa  Forges)  brings  on 
the  stage  with  modern  technique  in  Ddmmerung  (1895) 
the  old  melodramatic  figures  of  the  noble  artist  mis- 
judged by  the  world,  the  spoiled  headstrong  girl  and 
the  intellectual  sacrificing  wife,  only  that  now  the 
spoiled  girl  has  studied  medicine,  the  misjudged  artist 
is  a  pioneer  in  Wagner  music  and  the  sacrificing  wife 
hysterical,  while  instead  of  being  laid  in  an  ivy  bower 
the  scene  is  in  a  darkened  sickroom.  Afterwards  the 
authoress  made  a  more  successful  attempt  in  the  fairy- 
play,  Konigskinder  (1898),  but  was  not  able  to  create 
a  living  drama  in  her  slender  Johannes  Herkner  (1904). 

MAX  DREYER,  on  the  other  hand,  showed  his  stage- 
skill  even  in  his  first  play,  Drei  (1892),  in  which  he 
treated  feelingly  and  tenderly  the  conflict  between  love 
and  friendship.  Later,  with  repression  of  all  higher 
artistic  claims,  he  gave  his  talent  full  course  in  In 
Behandlung  (1897),  Orossmama  (1898)  and  Liebes- 
tr'dume  (1898).  And  yet  there  is  not  to  be  recognized 


180  GERMAN  DRAMA 

in  these  the  cool  scheming  of  the  practical  stage- 
writers,  eager  for  success  but  rather  that  fresh,  na'ive 
creation  which  gives  something  suitable  to  all  his 
figures,  even  if  Der  Probekandidat  (1899)  borders  on 
that  business-like  writing  with  a  purpose  which  Otto 
Ernst  pursues.  With  Die  Siebzehnjahrigen  (1904)  he 
returned  to  the  serious  dramatic  work  of  his  promising 
beginning. 

A  peculiarly  uncertain  character  is  HERMANN  BAHR. 
At  first  a  fully  persuaded  Naturalist  who  did  not  shrink 
from  the  most  disgusting  phenomena,  as  in  Die  grosse 
Sunde  (1899)  and  in  Die  Mutter  (1890),  he  followed 
all  the  changes  of  most  recent  times.  The  last  stage 
he  has  up  to  the  present  reached  is  the  Vienna  society- 
play,  such  as  Der  Star  (1898),  Wienerinnen  (1900), 
Der  Meister  (1903),  a  most  unsuccessful  description  of 
an  unscrupulous  lordly  fellow,  and  Die  Andere  (1905), 
the  story  of  a  mysterious  girl  with  two  souls.  The 
easy  pliancy  of  his  artistic  tastes  is  peculiar,  too,  to 
his  women  characters  and  over  all  his  plays  there  lies 
the  superfine  sensuousness  of  the  aesthete. 

This  quality  is  coupled  with  great  technical  skill  in 
the  most  successful  of  the  Vienna  dramatists  of  to-day, 
ARTHUR  SCHNITZLER.  In  his  first  work,  Anatol  (1893), 
the  dramatic  form  is  only  an  excuse  to  string  together 
an  amusing  series  of  momentary  pictures  from  the  life 
of  a  worldling,  but  Liebelei  (1895),  and  especially  the 
one-act  play,  Der  griine  Kakadu  (1899),  shows  that 
the  plastic  formative  power  and  energy  of  the  genuine 
dramatist  is  not  lacking  and  that  he  knows  how  to  com- 
bine these  with  the  different  moods  which  are  to  him  the 
most  essential.  There  is  in  him  the  gentle  ease  of  old 
Vienna  and  the  frivolity  of  the  modern  large  city, 


DRAMATIC  WRITERS  181 

intimately  joined  because  they  both  have  had  their  final 
origin  in  the  same  unchanging  folk-character.  That 
with  this  there  may  be  combined  a  certain  seriousness, 
even  if  not  very  deep,  is  seen  in  Schnitzler's  good  play, 
Der  einsame  Weg  (1904). 

Where,  however,  the  frivolous  temper  to  which  noth- 
ing is  sacred  is  the  sole  guide  without  the  addition  of 
the  lightly  sentimental  coloring  of  the  old  style,  then 
the  result  is  a  limitless  contempt  for  the  world  which 
seeks  to  crush  even  one's  own  personality  with  scorn 
and  raillery.  That  is  the  real  gist  of  the  peculiarly  at- 
tractive plays  by  FRANZ  WEDEKIND  such  as  Fruhlingser- 
wachen  (1894),  Der  Erdgeist  (1895)  and  Der  Kammer- 
sdnger  (1899).  His  is  a  completely  vicious  nature,  at 
the  same  time  artistic  through  and  through,  driven 
from  desire  to  enjoyment  and  in  enjoyment  languishing 
with  desire,  despising  himself  just  as  much  as  he  does 
those  who  think  they  find  in  his  work  any  lofty  aim 
whatever.  The  omission  of  all  reference  to  the  super- 
natural and  the  conception  and  use  of  existence  as  of  a 
mere  given  fact,  is  shown  in  its  last  artistic  consequences 
in  a  horrifying  manner  in  Wedekind's  writings. 

"What  can  still  produce  a  certain  satisfaction  in  the 
Naturalistic  authors  who  make  only  a  superficial  ex- 
amination of  phenomena,  is  a  source  of  despair  to  the 
man  who  looks  into  the  depths  of  his  own  soul  and  finds 
there  nothing  but  emptiness.  To  escape  this  fate,  more 
serious  natures,  who  no  longer  shared  the  faith  in  the 
old  ethical  and  metaphysical  values,  eagerly  seized  upon 
the  compensation  which  seemed  to  be  offered  in  mysti- 
cism, myth  and  fairy-story.  They  have  put  the  blue 
flower  in  their  coat  of  arms  and  sought  the  path  which 
leads  to  the  enchanted  forest  of  fancy.  But  only  a  few 


182  GERMAN  DRAMA 

found  it  and  the  rest  contented  themselves  with  the 
scenes  in  which  once  upon  a  time  the  Romanticists  had 
given  expression  to  their  feelings,  full  of  presentiments 
and  overspread  with  wavering  moonlight,  or  they  fol- 
lowed the  sweet,  shuddering  notes  which  the  Belgian 
MAURICE  MAETERLINCK  gave  forth.  Colors  and  tone- 
effects,  suggestions  instead  of  clear  expression,  retarding 
delay  at  the  moment  of  greatest  excitement,  plain  inter- 
meddling on  the  part  of  supernatural  powers,  the  same 
expedients  which  Novalis,  Tieck,  Eichendorff,  Zacharias 
Werner  and  their  successors  employed,  this  present  day 
art  also  uses,  only  that  now  excessively  refined,  morbidly 
excited  nerves  are  made  to  tingle  and  listeners  of  like 
nature  are  expected. 

Maeterlinck  planned  a  number  of. his  early  dramas 
for  the  puppet-theatre,  in  order  in  this  way  to  transfer 
the  scenes  into  the  region  of  the  fairy-story  and  of 
childlike  instinctive  feeling.  He  has  recourse  to  the 
imagination  and  the  unconscious  recalling  of  incidents, 
but  reflection  and  strong  willed  passion  are  excluded. 
It  is  a  matter  of  indifference  whether  he  takes  his  ma- 
terial from  the  domain  of  the  fairy-story  or  from  real- 
ity, the  conditions  of  creation  and  enjoyment  remain  the 
same.  Everywhere  his  writings  demand  full  self-sur- 
render and  do  not  allow  critical  examination.  To  force 
the  spectator  completely  into  his  spell  Maeterlinck 
deadens  the  thinking  faculties  with  narcotics  and 
makes  the  clear  outlook  hazy.  An  enigmatical,  gloomy 
picture  at  the  beginning,  ambiguous  speeches  and  ges- 
tures which  everywhere  hide  a  mysterious  sense  behind 
affected  simplicity,  numerous  pauses  which  seem  to  con- 
ceal something  important  and  excite  the  hearers  to  fruit- 
less worry,  all  this  is  combined  and  leads  to  a  weariness 


DRAMATIC  WRITERS  183 

of  consciousness  which  forms  the  proper  basis  of  all  sug- 
gestion. The  bodily  eye  closes  but  the  eyes  of  the  soul 
remain  wide  open.  Reality  passes  away,  fairyland  be- 
comes our  world. 

The  shorter  and  older  dramas  in  the  complete  German 
edition  of  Maeterlinck's  works  are  without  justification 
divided  into  two  groups,  "Mystical  Dramas"  and 
"Every-day  Dramas."  They  are  all  of  a  mystical  na- 
ture in  so  far  as  in  them  a  mysterious  invisible  something 
approaches,  making  itself  continuously  felt,  depriving 
the  spectator  of  breath  and  awakening  in  him  an  anxiety 
which  tightens  his  throat  and  makes  the  cold  chills  run 
down  his  back.  This  impression  is  always  prominent 
whether,  as  in  Intruse  (1898),  reality  is  the  scene  of  the 
action,  or  the  fairyland  of  fancy,  as  in  Die  sieben  Prinz- 
essinnen  (1891)  and  Der  Tod  des  Tintagiles.  "  Some- 
thing peculiar  must  be  added  to  everyday  life  so  that  we 
shall  learn  to  estimate  it  rightly,"  says  Maeterlinck,  and 
this  "peculiar"  thing  is  recognized  in  the  soul's  feeling 
out  beyond  itself  into  the  unknown,  untravelled  regions. 
In  these  "boundless  realms"  mystery  dwells,  horror  and 
fear  of  the  impalpable  encircle  the  traveller  on  all  sides, 
ever  narrowing  the  circle  about  him  and  crushing  in  his 
breast  until  with  the  despairing  cry,  "I  can  bear  it  no 
longer, ' '  he  falls. 

It  is  very  comprehensible  that  in  the  quest  for  new  and 
striking  impressions  a  genuine  poet  like  Maeterlinck  will 
lose  himself  at  times  in  these  abysses  and  that  kindred 
natures  longing  for  such  excitement  will  give  him  grate- 
ful admiration.  But  in  the  long  run  one  can  hardly  sat- 
isfy the  theatrical  public  with  these  neurological  effects. 
On  the  one  hand,  the  morbid,  on  the  other,  the  lack  of 
tangible  material,  limit  the  whole  class  in  its  original 


184  GERMAN   DRAMA 

form  to  those  who  are  looking  for  mystic  lyric  impres- 
sions. 

Maeterlinck  himself  returned  to  the  basis  of  reality. 
With  his  theatrical  cloak-and-sword  play,  Monna  Vanna 
(1902),  he  gained,  not  without  questionable  expedients, 
a  large  following.  This,  to  be  sure,  was  his  only  for  a 
time  because  in  his  next  plays,  Das  W under  des  heiligen 
Antonius  (1905)  and  Schwcster  Beatrix  (1905),  he  was 
understood  by  only  a  few.  And  yet  Maeterlinck  exer- 
cised for  some  years  a  strong  influence  on  dramatic  writ- 
ing. The  conception  of  a  domain  of  true  poetry  in  which 
the  inner  life  is  directed  outwards  has  taken  on  a  new 
form  under  his  influence.  Those  dramatists  wrho  have 
boxed  the  whole  compass  of  possibilities  for  the  means 
of  expressing  their  poetic  feelings  have  also  halted  be- 
fore him  but  found  little  indeed  available  for  their  pur- 
poses. 

Maeterlinck's  influence  is  clearly  recognizable  in  the 
work  of  RUDOLF  LOTHAR.  His  masque,  Konig  Harlekin 
(1900),  unfortunately  does  not  devote  the  proper  deep- 
ening of  the  psychical  to  a  very  effective  subject,  one 
containing  in  modern  dramatic  dress  the  Demetrius- 
theme.  From  this  mistake  Lothar's  mystic  dramas  also 
suffer  as  Der  Wert  des  Lebens  (1892)  and  Bitter,  Tod 
und  Teufel  (1896).  In  the  last-named  one-act  drama 
death  appears  in  visible  form  on  the  stage  and  this  scene 
has  often  been  repeated  in  these  latter  years.  SCHMIDT- 
HASSLER  has  turned  such  a  scene  to  good  account  in  his 
effective  drama  Herbst,  also  the  sentimental  lyrist  MAX 
MOLLER  in  his  Totentanz  (1898). 

The  influence  of  Romanticism  and  Maeterlinck  is  re- 
cognizable in  the  use  made  of  primitive,  popular  concep- 
tions, but  a  new  and  piquant  charm  is  sought  by  putting 


DRAMATIC  WRITERS  185 

the  man  with  the  scythe  in  the  midst  of  real  life  among 
enlightened  people  or  his  terrors  are  taken  from  him 
and  everything  avoided  which  might  remind  one  of  the 
skeleton. 

But  no  one  has  made  death  appear  so  noble  and  artistic 
on  the  stage  as  HUGO  VON  HOFFMANNSTHAL  in  his  little 
drama,  Der  Tor  und  der  Tod  (1899).  Like  Maeterlinck 
he,  too,  aims  in  his  first  dramas  merely  at  exciting  feel- 
ing. But  not  by  the  aid  of  the  peculiar  and  the  gloomy. 
In  the  clear  light  of  day,  exulting  in  beauty  without 
dross,  his  muse  strides  along  on  the  heights  of  an  aristo- 
cratic, noble  humanity  which  is  no  longer  touched  by 
the  breath  of  the  low,  the  wretched  and  the  ugly.  His 
art  shares  with  the  Romantic  the  excess  of  musical  ef- 
fects, but  the  notes  express  no  longer  a  delicate,  indis- 
tinct longing;  on  the  contrary  the  ear  is  ravished  by 
grand  and  gorgeous  expressions  pouring  forth  in  swell- 
ing periods  while  the  eye  delights  in  exquisite  forms  and 
colors.  It  is  a  pity  that  this  esthetic  enjoyment  alone 
seems  to  the  dramatist  exclusively  worthy  of  aspiration, 
because  the  beautiful  shell  lacks  the  kernel  of  strong 
feeling  and  direct  impulsive  passion. 

The  unhappy  fate  of  the  beautiful  heroine  in  Die 
Hochzeit  der  Sobeide  (1899)  is  intended  by  the  drama- 
tist to  affect  the  soul  only  with  light  sadness  instead  of 
overwhelming  it,  because  the  aesthetic  idea  of  the  play 
has  been  extended  far  beyond  the  hitherto  current  con- 
ception. Der  Abenteurer  und  die  Sangerin  (1899)  also 
aims  at  exciting  no  stronger  interest  than  that  in  the 
beautiful  form  and  even  then  it  always  turns  on  a  pic- 
ture or  a  lyrical  expression  of  the  soul.  The  dramatic 
form,  especially  in  his  briefest  works,  Der  Tod  Tizicms 
(1898)  and  Das  kleine  Welttheater  (1903),  is  only  a 


186  GERMAN  DRAMA 

means  to  make  this  note  sound  out  full.  Through  the 
rank  climbing  flowers  on  their  high  slender  lattices, 
which  surround  the  artist's  magic  garden,  one  is  to 
suspect  rather  than  see  the  outside  world.  The  dra- 
matic form  is  here  resolved  into  a  series  of  lyrical 
poems,  the  speakers  stand  at  last  in  no  external  con- 
nection whatever  and  all  trace  of  a  scene  is  lacking,  let 
alone  an  action  directed  to  a  certain  goal. 

To  provide  a  definite  action,  Hoffmannsthal  later 
made  use  of  older  dramatists,  as  the  English  Otway  in 
Das  gerettete  Venedig  (1905),  or  Sophocles  in  his 
Elektra  (1904)  and  in  Oedipus  und  die  Sphinx  (1905). 
The  cause  of  this  very  questionable  proceeding  is  that 
the  dramatist  lacks  real  power  or  capacity  for  passion- 
ate feeling  and  for  plastic  creation.  Therefore  he  takes 
ready-made  figures  from  his  predecessors,  tints,  them 
anew  with  pale,  modern  colors,  with  often  very  unsuit- 
able outlines  of  perverted,  most  finely  differentiated 
sensations  or  endows  them,  in  simulation  of  strength 
but  in  bad  taste,  with  superfluous  brutality.  Only  upon 
similarly  constituted  spectators,  without  a  cultivated 
sense  for  style,  can  these  recasts,  individually  charming 
but  on  the  whole  worthless,  have  any  influence.  In  com- 
parison, the  theatrical  quality  of  Monna  Vanna  seems 
after  all  the  better.  They  signify  only  more  or  less 
interesting  experiments  which  do  the  stage  no  good  and 
endanger  the  aesthetic  well-being  of  the  public. 


GERMAN  DRAMA  187 

GERHART  HAUPTMANN 

In  his  Monna  Vanna  Maeterlinck  revealed  in  sur- 
prising fashion  a  practical  aptitude  which,  to  judge 
from  his  early  dramatic  works,  seemed  to  be  entirely 
lacking  in  him  and  which  had  hitherto  been  displayed 
by  the  only  one  of  the  German  "Moderns"  who  is 
recognized  on  all  sides  as  the  best  dramatist  among 
them,  Gerhart  Hauptmann. 

In  his  work  there  is  reflected  the  uncertain  artistic 
character  of  the  times,  a  continual  search  for  a  new 
style  and  new  fields  for  subjects.  Of  the  fifteen  *  dra- 
matic works  by  him  scarcely  one  will  be  able  to  hold 
a  lasting  place  on  the  stage,  but  they  all,  the  best  as  well 
as  the  least  successful,  will  live  on  in  history  as  monu- 
ments of  this  confused,  uncertain  and  unsettled  period. 
None  of  his  fellow-seekers  strive  with  such  earnest  zeal 
for  the  art  which  will  offer  to  him,  as  a  man  living  en- 
tirely in  the  present,  the  corresponding  expression  of  his 
feelings.  None  possess  in  so  great  a  degree  the  talent  to 
master  quickly  new  styles  of  expression  and  fill  them 
with  genuine  intrinsic  import  and  few  have  remained 
so  free  from  the  hurtful  influences  of  the  life  and  cul- 
ture of  large  cities,  of  excessive  sensitiveness  and  of 
decadence  or  have  kept  so  well  in  touch  with  his  native 
soil  as  Hauptmann. 

He  comes  from  a  small  Silesian  town  and  is  the  off- 
spring of  poor  weavers.  With  the  impressions  of  his 
youth  there  was  mingled  the  remembrance  of  great  suf- 
fering, though  he  himself  did  not  have  to  taste  the  sor- 
rows of  poverty.  He  saw  many  peasants  grow  rich 
without  effort  because  of  coal-treasures  under  their  acres 
*  This  number  is  now  increased  to  nineteen.  (L.  E.  H.,  1908.) 


188  GERMAN  DRAMA 

and  then  degenerate  into  laziness  and  vice,  while  all 
around  him  was  the  prosaic  acquisitiveness  of  the  citi- 
zens of  a  provincial  town.  The  youth  with  tender  feel- 
ings and  high  ideals  found  in  this  world  no  satisfaction 
as  landowner.  He  wanted  to  become  a  sculptor,  but 
at  the  Breslau  Art-School  came  to  the  conviction  that 
the  chisel  was  not  to  be  the  instrument  of  his  develop- 
ment. His  work  was  not  to  comprehend  external  phe- 
nomena but  the  inner  nature  of  things  and  in  this,  ac- 
cording to  the  then  prevalent  faith  in  their  omnipotence, 
the  natural  sciences  were  to  serve  him.  In  Jena  he 
became  Haeckel's  scholar.  In  Berlin  he  looked  more 
closely  into  social  questions  and  this  insight  into  the 
misery  of  the  metropolis  supplemented  his  earlier  im- 
pressions. The  despairing  mood,  which  so  often  arises 
from  the  clash  of  youthful  idealism  with  reality  took 
possession  of  Hauptmann  as  well,  and  on  an  Italian 
journey  it  was  condensed  into  his  first  work,  the  epic 
Prometkidenlos  (1885).  Revolution  does  not  rear  its 
head  angrily  in  this  play  as  in  so  many  "maiden" 
works,  for  according  to  his  conviction  of  the  legitimate 
nature  of  everything  that  happens,  all  opposition  to 
the  powers  ruling  in  nature  and  society  seems  to  him 
impossible  and  he  can  only  show  deep  sympathy  with 
the  unfortunate  who  fall  under  their  weight. 

This  conviction  was  still  more  strengthened  by  the 
influence  of  his  brother  Carl,  the  psychologist  and 
physiologist  with  his  independence  of  thought,  and  also 
by  the  circle  of  young  authors  which  had  collected  in 
a  suburb  of  Berlin  and  into  which  Hauptmann  entered 
in  1885. 

First  of  all  the  brothers  Heinrich  and  Julius  Hart 


GERHART  HAUPTMANN  189 

had  opened  the  fight  against  senile  decadence  and  un- 
truth in  their  Kritische  Waffengange  (1882).  They  de- 
sired to  imbibe  new  life  from  healthy  national  sentiment. 
Karl  Bleibtreu  had,  in  his  Revolution  der  Literatur 
(1885),  tried  to  shatter  every  stone  of  the  Bastille  within 
whose  walls  all  earlier  authors  were  said  to  have  de- 
generated. William  Bolsche  sought  to  find  poetic  form 
for  the  results  of  the  modern  natural  sciences.  Haupt- 
mann  came  into  personal  and  intellectual  touch  with 
them  all,  but  above  all  he  came  under  the  influence  of 
the  most  logical  of  the  Naturalists,  Arno  Holz,  and 
what  he  learned  from  him  is  shown  in  his  first  drama, 
Vor  Sonnenaufgang  (1889). 

Its  aim  is  to  give  a  faithful  description  of  certain 
social  conditions.  Exactly  as  the  dramatist  had  seen 
them,  the  degenerate  Silesian  peasants  were  to  appear 
on  the  stage  with  all  that  was  disgusting  in  their 
disgraceful  appetites,  their  souls  completely  brutalized 
by  wealth.  The  most  trifling  characteristic  was  not  to 
be  wanting  in  the  scene,  and  because  stage-expedients 
were  not  sufficient,  the  author  takes  refuge  in  long  de- 
scriptions in  the  form  of  stage  directions.  But  even 
by  this  means  his  purpose  was  not  to  be  attained.  A 
choice  had  to  be  made  from  the  great  number  of  details 
and  those  received  the  preference,  in  accordance  with 
the  aggressive  mood  of  those  years,  which  bade  stoutest 
defiance  to  the  prevailing  disinclination  to  the  artistic 
use  of  what  was  disgusting.  This  tendency  coincides 
with  Hauptmann's  experience.  What  most  offends  his 
moral  and  aesthetic  feelings  has  been  most  deeply  im- 
pressed upon  him  and  must  have  seemed  to  him  to  be 
the  most  characteristic  feature  of  the  circumstances  he 


190  GERMAN  DRAMA 

has  described.  With  disgust  is  coupled  sympathy  with 
the  degenerate.  From  the  consciousness  of  an  inexor- 
able fate  ruling  over  them,  there  grows  the  conviction 
of  a  necessary  connection  with  it;  out  of  this  develops 
the  tragedy  of  their  situation  and  with  it  the  possibility 
of  giving  it  dramatic  form.  In  accordance  with  his  con- 
viction of  the  absolute  might  of  the  powers  which  settle 
the  conditions,  Hauptmann  cannot,  to  be  sure,  introduce 
into  the  field  against  them  any  successful  or  even  merely 
hopeful  will,  but  he  can  show  how  the  individual  strives 
in  vain  to  withstand  them. 

He  places  a  pure  girlish  nature  in  the  midst  of  a 
family  circle  of  drunkards,  adulterers  and  prostitutes. 
An  ideally-minded,  sympathetic  socialist  stretches  out 
his  hand  to  her  in  sincere  love  to  lead  her  forth,  but 
draws  back  because  this  revolt  against  the  laws  of  nature 
must  be  for  no  good  and  would  be  avenged  on  the  coming 
generation.  Robbed  of  all  hope  she  falls  a  victim. 

Hauptmann  wished  to  produce  this  comfortless  im- 
pression and  thus  remain  true  to  the  demands  of  the 
school  as  well  as  to  his  own  impressions.  But  contrary 
to  his  own  purpose  an  element  of  joy  is  intermingled. 
Helene,  this  character  thirsting  for  love,  full  of  lofty 
grace  and  of  vigorous  life,  may  be  ruined  as  an  in- 
dividual. But  we  cannot  believe  that  the  impulse  to 
self-preservation  in  the  human  race,  which  is  uncon- 
sciously revealed  in  her  surrender  to  her  lover,  should 
not  carry  off  the  victory  over  all  logical  considerations. 
Even  in  the  drama  itself  a  charming  love  scene  allows 
this  faith  to  spring  up.  In  this  the  dramatist  shows 
himself  mightier  than  the  theorist,  he  forgets  his  school 
lesson  and  becomes  free.  The  longing  for  happiness, 
for  beauty,  breaks  out  so  strongly  that  it  is  inextin- 


GERHART  HAUPTMANN  191 

guishable,  even  if  afterwards  the  hazy  grey  twilight  of 
hopeless  degeneration  lies  over  all  that  follows. 

Still  another  element  is  revealed  in  this  great  love- 
scene,  the  instinct  for  dramatic  effect.  Hauptmann  felt 
that  there  was  nothing  to  be  gained  by  a  description 
of  conditions  on  the  stage  because  it  is  a  question  of 
inner  conduct,  of  pyschical  developments  brought  about 
by  conscious  or  still  better  by  unconscious  volition.  In 
defiance  to  naturalistic  dogma,  he  here  makes  two  souls 
reveal  the  same  strong  desire,  so  that  the  spectators, 
like  the  characters  themselves,  forget  everything  else. 
This  scene  means  more  to  the  quiet  spectator  than  all 
the  rest  of  the  play.  In  the  accuracy  of  the  character- 
ization and  in  the  charming  sentiment  of  many  other 
portions,  he  might  also  note  signs  that  Hauptmann  him- 
self was  not  finding  satisfaction  in  the  artistic  and 
scientific  dogmas  to  which  he  at  that  time  subscribed. 
He  himself  has  expressed  that  in  clear  words  in  Vor 
Sonnenaufgang.  Helene  asks,  "Zola  and  Ibsen  are 
spoken  of  so  much  in  the  newspapers,  are  they  great 
writers?"  Loth  answers,  "They  are  not  writers  at  all, 
miss,  they  are  necessary  evils.  I  am  honorable  and 
thirsty  and  desire  from  literature  a  clear,  refreshing 
drink.  I  am  not  sick.  What  Zola  and  Ibsen  offer,  is 
medicine. ' '  But  where  among  the  spectators  filled  with 
party  passion,  who  were  present  at  the  play  in  the 
Berlin  "Free  Theatre,"  was  the  ability  to  understand 
the  meaning  of  this  utterance? 

Hauptmann  was  considered  from  now  on  an  out-and- 
out  Naturalist,  whose  talent  and  inclinations  were  to 
be  at  the  service  of  the  petty  reproduction  of  external 
phenomena.  For  the  sake  of  party  prejudice,  the  lack 
of  logic  revealing  itself  in  the  lengthy  didactic  utter- 


192  GERMAN  DRAMA 

auces  of  engineer  Loth  was  overlooked  and  also  the 
faults  of  his  language,  which  is  often  by  no  means  true 
to  life. 

In  this  respect  his  second  work,  Das  Friedensfest 
(1890),  marks  a  step  in  advance.  And  so  also  does 
the  fact  that  now,  instead  of  following  the  German 
Naturalists  Holz  and  Schlaf  and  thus  indirectly  Zola, 
the  novelist,  Ibsen,  that  is,  a  great  dramatist,  became 
Hauptmann's  model.  He  calls  his  play  "a  family 
catastrophe,"  but  he  had  not  yet  learned  from  Ibsen 
to  seize  the  last  point  of  a  dramatic  development  and 
so  present  it  with  its  preliminary  conditions  that  the 
necessity  of  the  ending  becomes  clear.  The  new  influ- 
ence was  still  being  crossed  by  the  earlier  effort  to 
describe  conditions.  He,  therefore,  picked  out  from  the 
stream  of  events  one  in  which  the  nature  of  his  char- 
acters and  their  relations  to  each  other  were  significantly 
illustrated.  Like  Ibsen  in  his  last  period  he  does  not 
now  wish  any  longer  to  pass  criticism  on  society  but 
merely  to  present  modern,  morbid  individuals,  who  are 
to  be  sure  settled  in  their  peculiarities  by  the  condition 
of  society. 

However  unsatisfactory  the  whole  picture  of  this  fam- 
ily, torn  by  hatred,  may  be,  however  dismal,  too,  the 
heaven  that  lies  above  them,  yet  there  is  here  a  far 
wider  hope  for  a  bright  day  than  in  Vor  Sonncnauf- 
gang.  Significantly,  at  the  close  is  placed  the  outlook 
for  the  victory  of  a  firm  confidence  in  life  on  the  part 
of  a  womanly  heart  filled  with  love.  A  faint  doubt 
disturbs  the  blindly  accepted  natural  law  of  heredity. 
Surprising  is  the  advance  in  technique  from  disjointed 
description  to  an  energetic  working  out  of  characters 


GERHART  HAUPTMANN  1Q3 

and  the  collisions  between  them  which  result  in  a  series 
of  explosive   scenes. 

The  action  in  Einsame  Menschen  (1891)  once  more 
takes  a  quieter  course.  It  is  a  tragedy  of  insufficient 
talents,  incapable  of  deeds.  Johannes  Vockerath  is  not 
a  talented  man  and  is  not  crushed  by  the  might  of 
the  commonplace  as  would  at  first  sight  appear.  That 
in  his  heart  he  has  conquered  all  prejudices,  has  no 
meaning  for  him,  because  he  gives  way  to  them  without 
opposition  in  order  to  spare  his  family.  His  intellectual 
significance  remains  an  unproved  assertion.  He  is 
ruined  because,  from  fear  of  a  decision  by  the  stronger 
woman  who  loves  him,  he  cannot  become  free.  Haupt- 
mann  has  here  given  a  type  of  his  time  with  convincing 
fidelity,  a  man  who  desires  in  vain  to  bring  his  over- 
tender  feelings,  which  make  reverent  consideration  his 
duty,  into  harmony  with  his  new  convictions  and  his 
striving  for  freedom.  This  suffering,  in  the  conscious- 
ness of  not  being  able  to  unite  what  cannot  be  united, 
is  the  subject  of  Einsame  Menschen,  the  first  mature 
work  Hauptmann  wrote.  First,  it  brought  cheerful 
recognition  from  outside  the  party  to  which  he  had 
up  to  that  time  been  counted  and  awakened  the  belief 
that  in  him  had  arisen  the  new  poet  for  whom  the 
times  had  been  looking.  It  was  now  recognized  that 
the  "drama  of  social  conditions"  could  arrest  one's 
attention  as  strongly  from  beginning  to  end  as  a  plot 
overloaded  with  incidents  and  that  it  did  not  need  the 
inciting  expedients  of  what  was  disgusting  and  low. 
And  for  the  sake  of  these  excellencies  one  gladly  over- 
looked the  weaknesses  of  the  too  wordy  outpourings 
of  the  hero  and  of  the  indistinct  lines  with  which  the 
most  important  figure,  Anna  Mahr,  was  drawn. 


GERMAN   DRAMA 

Hauptmann  likewise  showed,  in  the  field  of  the  cheer- 
ful, the  possibility  of  doing  away  with  the  old  develop- 
ments in  comedy,  when  his  College  Grampian  (Isni' 
appeared.  It  is  a  picture  of  the  degenerate  genius, 
taken  from  life,  touching  and  at  the  same  time  diverting, 
but  framed  about  with  superfluous  arabesques,  all  too 
easily  thrown  off. 

Then  he  wrote  Die  Weber  (1893).  Earlier  dramatists 
had  never  tried  to  sketch  any  but  individual  natures. 
When  it  had  been  a  question  of  using  the  masses  in  a 
drama  as  co-acting  factors,  then  either  individual  rep- 
resentatives wrould  be  picked  out,  as  in  Shakespeare's 
Julius  Ccesar  or  Goethe's  Egmont,  and  treated  accord- 
ing to  the  principles  of  individual  psychology,  or  the 
chorus  of  Greek  tragedy  gave  the  model  and  the  feel- 
ing of  unity  was  indicated,  as  in  that,  by  some  few 
general  human  impulses  which  are  present  in  all.  Be- 
ginnings of  a  "psychology  of  the  masses"  are  to  be 
discerned  in  Kleist's  Robert  Guiskard,  in  Hebbel's 
Judith  and  in  Ludwig's  Makkabaer.  Here  is  already 
shown  something  of  that  immense  strengthening  force 
which  every  impulse  receives  because  of  a  number  feel- 
ing it  in  common,  of  those  sudden  transitions  which 
arise  therefrom  and  of  the  blind  passion  of  the  excited 
popular  mind,  which  is  swayed  by  quite  different  laws 
than  affect  the  individual.  But  still  no  one  before 
Hauptmann  had  attempted  to  make  this  knowledge 
fruitful  to  the  drama.  In  Schiller's  Tell  the  people 
spoke  and  acted  just  as  every  Swiss  would  have  spoken 
and  acted  for  himself.  In  Die  Weber,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  representatives  of  the  class  described  there 
form  a  harp,  all  the  strings  of  which  begin  to  give  out 
at  the  same  time,  when  the  air-waves  strike  them,  low 


GERHART  HAUPTMANN  195 

complaining  or  loud  screaming  notes,  so  that  the  in- 
dividual voices  together  form  a  mighty  accord,  in  which 
the  peculiar  quality  of  each  is  indeed  discernible,  but 
none  prevails  over  and  sounds  above  the  other. 

Die  Weber  is  a  historical  drama.  Free  from  any 
didactic  purpose,  it  aims  at  so  representing  an  event 
of  the  past,  on  the  basis  of  a  conscientious  study  of 
the  facts,  that  the  humanly  significant,  inwardly  effective 
impulses  stand  out  clearly.  As  the  subject  demands, 
the  place  of  the  single  hero  is  here  taken  by  the  col- 
lective mind  of  the  poor  handweavers  who  start  up  out 
of  dumb  patient  suffering  with  a  fearful  cry,  become 
intoxicated  in  a  half  dreamy  condition  with  good  for- 
tune and  freedom  and  then  sink  back  into  powerless, 
aimless  existences.  In  four  scenes  the  dramatist  shows 
us  this  development.  With  a  new  counterpoint  tech- 
nique, which  one  may  well  compare  with  that  of  Wag- 
ner, the  leading  motives  embodied  in  certain  figures 
are  interwoven  into  a  surprising  wealth  of  combinations 
and  at  the  same  time  the  flow  of  the  action,  of  the 
never-ending  melody  that  carries  them  all,  is  continued. 
As  the  stage  demands,  one  link  is  made  fast  to  the 
next  before  our  eyes,  all  joined  into  an  unbreakable 
chain.  The  sketching  of  conditions  here  becomes,  at 
the  same  time,  a  very  valuable  dramatic  expedient,  be- 
cause volition  and  individuality  do  not  settle  every- 
thing, but  the  given  circumstances  and  their  changes 
are  both  the  cause  and  the  condition  of  the  action. 
In  earlier  dramas  by  the  Naturalists  one  could  allow 
that  the  new  style  was  a  valuable  technical  advance; 
here  in  Die  Weber  alone  has  it  become  a  necessary 
expression  of  the  inherent  nature  of  a  work  of  art, 
that  is,  style  in  the  higher  sense. 


196  GERMAN  DRAMA 

The  influence  of  this  significant  drama  was  both 
helped  and  hindered  by  the  fact  that  its  nature  was 
mostly  misunderstood.  When  the  censor  looked  on  it 
as  a  revolutionary  drama  with  a  purpose  and  there- 
fore vetoed  its  performance,  attention  was  widely  called 
to  it,  and  when  at  last  its  performance  was  allowed, 
it  became  from  that  point  of  view  a  drawing  card, 
so  that  at  first  it  could  not  be  understood  as  the 
dramatist  purposed.  But  just  because  of  the  numerous 
performances  the  author's  view  afterwards  prevailed, 
viz:  that  Die  Weber  was  only  to  be  considered  as  a 
work  of  art  and  that  its  author  had  put  nothing  else 
into  his  historical  material  than  a  deep  sympathy  with 
all  the  unfortunate. 

For  the  second  time  Hauptmann  intended  in  the 
same  way  to  conceive  of  an  historic  event  in  its  whole 
course  when  he  wrote  Florian  Geyer  (1895).  With 
the  same  intensive  study  he  now  worked  his  way  into 
the  times  of  the  Peasants'  War  and  set  himself  the 
mighty  problem  of  conjuring  up  in  its  totality,  out 
of  the  legal  documents,  this  period  so  rent  by  political, 
religious  and  social  factions.  Every  class,  knight,  citi- 
zen, and  peasant,  was  to  appear  on  the  stage  true  to 
life  in  speech  and  gesture,  in  feeling  and  thought.  At 
the  same  time  the  clash  of  all  these  opposing  interests 
was  to  furnish,  in  the  explosion  of  the  peasant  revolt, 
the  external  limits  of  a  background  that  was  after  all 
scarcely  to  be  clearly  comprehended  by  the  eye  in  its 
whole  extent.  Florian  Geyer  gave  his  name  to  the 
drama  because  the  figure  of  the  high-born  leader  of 
the  peasants  stands  at  the  point  where  the  lines  cross 
one  another.  Thus  in  his  fate  there  was  attained  at 
the  same  time  a  sort  of  dramatic  recapitulation  and  a 


GERHART  HAUPTMANN  197 

conclusion.  Ilauptmann  has  done  really  gigantic  work 
in  his  artistic  mastery  of  the  mass  of  materials  and 
the  play  represents  in  this  respect  his  greatest  trial 
of  strength,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  there  is  still 
enough  rude  and  unworked  material  left.  True,  the 
management  and  clear  working  out  of  the  lines  of 
direction  have  fared  badly  and,  because  of  its  length 
and  the  number  of  persons  represented,  it  was  shown 
that  the  drama  could  not  be  played.  This  alone,  but 
not  its  artistic  demerit,  was  confirmed  by  its  complete 
failure  on  the  stage.  In  spite  of  its  entire  want  of 
success,  this  play  does  prove  his  great  aim  and  his 
unusual  ability  to  transmute  the  effective  mass-move- 
ments beneath  the  surface  of  events  and  also  individual 
deeds  into  dramatic  scenes.  "With  this  play  Hauptmann 
gave  the  first  impulse  to  a  new  form  of  historical  drama, 
corresponding  to  the  modern  conception  of  history;  he 
set  himself  a  high  aim  which  was  denied  to  the  petty 
limitation  of  extreme  Naturalism  and  struggled  to  get 
out  of  the  confining,  limits  of  an  outwardly  accepted 
theory  and  be  free  in  his  creative  work. 

How  Hauptmann  worked  himself  free  from  the  ex- 
clusive imitation  of  reality  of  the  Naturalistic  school 
is  made  clearly  visible  in  Hanneles  Himmelfahrt  (1893). 
It  is  hardly  possible  to  conceive  of  a  greater  contrast 
than  that  of  the  Silesian  poorhouse  and  the  glory-filled 
spaces  of  Heaven  to  which  Hannele's  soul  mounts.  We 
recognize  in  it  the  bold  protest  of  the  dramatist  against 
his  inclusion  in  the  narrow  everyday  world.  He  pre- 
serves to  mother  earth,  upon  which  he  stands,  its  rights, 
but  he  wishes  to  let  his  eye  wander  as  far  as  it  can 
see.  Therefore  he  gives  in  the  play,  first  of  all,  a  sad 
picture  of  misery  and  then  Heaven  is  to  light  up  with 


198  GERMAN  DRAMA 

fairy-like  colors.  His  angels,  too,  are  slightly  touched 
with  the  pallor  of  poor  children  and  Hannele's  fevered 
dream  contains  more  than  her  childish  longings  can 
fully  describe.  The  difficult  transitions  are  not  a  suc- 
cess and  the  transfiguration  at  the  close  is  decked  out 
with  too  much  tinsel.  But  these  are  externals  which 
do  not  affect  the  genuine  poetic  content  of  the  dream- 
poem  and  only  show  that  a  romantic  and  playful  fancy 
is  not  Hauptmann's  strong  point.  It  is  likewise  to 
be  noted  even  here,  where  for  the  first  time  the  sym- 
bolical is  allowed  a  place,  that  the  author  is  not  able 
to  transmute  the  reflective  fully  and  completely  into 
dramatic  scenes. 

These  defects  of  his  endowment  he  is  striving  to 
remove  because  he  is  not  satisfied  with  the  reproduction 
of  reality  and  he  keeps  seeking — and  missing — the  road 
to  the  kingdom  of  fairy  phantasms.  First,  however, 
he  returned  again  to  his  hereditary  field  and  in  Der 
Biberpelz  (1893)  he  wrote  a  thieves'  comedy  which 
grouped  a  series  of  capitally  drawn  figures  about  two 
types  of  the  present  day.  The  washerwoman,  "Mother 
Wolff  en,"  is  a  masterpiece  of  accurate  conception  of 
a  lowly  soul  with  her  shrewd  impudence,  her  pliant 
loyalty  and  her  unscrupulous  use  of  all  possible  ad- 
vantages. She  is  always  pretending  to  be  simple,  and 
in  this  way  comes  out  on  top  while  her  opponent,  Super- 
intendent Wehrhahn,  inevitably  falls  into  her  nets  be- 
cause he  wants  to  appear  sharper  than  he  is  and  is 
blinded  by  the  arrogance  of  infallibility.  The  plot 
of  Biberpelz  is  a  little  meagre  and  suffers  from  the 
repetition  of  the  theft.  To  this  the  author  was  seduced 
by  the  desire  to  have  the  incident  serve  as  a  type.  A 
sequel  with  the  title,  Der  rote  Hahn  (1901),  gave  a 


GERHART  HAUPTMANN  199 

series  of  successful  pictures  of  social  conditions  in  the 
Berlin  suburbs,  but  was  altogether  too  lacking  in  well- 
knit  composition. 

Der  Biberpelz,  like  all  earlier  works  by  Hauptmann, 
could  only  attract  that  part  of  the  public  which  was 
ready  to  forego  the  fulfillment  of  the  desire  for  an 
undisturbed  enjoyment  of  grace  and  beauty.  In  Die 
versunkene  Glocke  (1895)  Hauptmann  composed  a  work 
which  did  not  demand  this  surrender.  The  subject 
in  this  case  did  not  entail  any  delineation  of  rude  reality 
nor  any  ugly  offence  against  morality;  still  further, 
the  play  is  written  in  verse,  is  dipped  in  the  fragrance 
of  the  fairy-atmosphere  and  shows  the  love  of  a  sweet, 
elf-like  creature  for  an  artist  with  ideals.  That  was 
the  right  diet  for  theatre-goers.  Rautendelein  became 
their  favorite  character,  Nickelmann  amused  them  by 
his  wild  appearance  and  his  amorous  quacking,  and 
the  forest-goblin  by  his  capers  and  his  little,  humorous 
rudenesses  which  were  gladly  put  up  with  from  him. 
No  one  worried  about  the  obscurities  in  the  character 
of  Heinrich,  the  bellfounder.  And  yet  that  was  the 
key  of  the  play,  for  Die  versunkene  Glocke  is  a  portrait 
of  the  author,  taken  after  the  failure  of  Florian  Geyer. 
Hatred  of  and  contempt  for  the  powers  of  darkness, 
who  have  plunged  his  difficult,  artistic  production  into 
the  deep  lake,  the  determination  to  make  grand  chimes 
on  the  mountain,  not  for  the  present,  but  for  a  newer 
and  purer  race  of  men,  the  fight  against  the  ignorant 
Philistines  who  begrudge  the  master  his  good  fortune, 
all  this  is  worked  into  the  mysterious  character  of 
Master  Heinrich  and  has  obscured  the  picture.  Just  as 
obscure  is  the  symbolism,  of  which  Hauptmann  makes 
much  in  this  play,  and  the  thought-content  by  which 


200  GERMAN  DRAMA 

he  sought  to  give  the  poem  greater  weight.  Nowhere 
in  Hauptmann's  other  dramas  has  one  such  a  feeling 
that  this  is  a  work  with  a  conscious  purpose  which  has 
cost  much  labor. 

It  is  given  to  him  to  succeed  completely  only  where 
he  can  reproduce  reality  with  a  mastery  of  accurate 
art.  Thus  he  created  that  striking  and  true  picture  of 
Fuhrmann  Henschel  (1898).  The  drama  seems  to  be 
telling  a  story,  filled  out  as  it  is  with  the  usual  acces- 
sories of  explanatory  and  entertaining  episodes.  But 
in  reality  it  is  a  question  after  all  of  relating  inner 
experience.  With  the  aid  of  complete  mastery  of  all 
dramatic  expedients  the  union  of  a  naturalistic  de- 
scription of  conditions  with  a  deeply  moving  course  of 
fate  is  carried  through  to  completion.  In  Henschel, 
the  honest  teamster  with  deep  and  tender  feelings,  and 
Hanne,  the  sensual  wrife  at  his  side  exulting  in  her 
strength,  Hauptmann  has  created  two  very  excellent 
dramatic  figures.  For  the  most  part,  by  a  trick  in 
the  arrangement  of  perspective,  he  has  secured  them 
the  leading  position  everywhere  in  the  scenes  out  of 
which,  by  the  law  of  his  art,  they  must  not  step.  Haupt- 
mann now  aims  at  an  illusion  which  corresponds  in 
every  way  to  the  impression  of  reality  only  that,  unseen 
by  the  spectator,  he  grades,  by  the  position  in  the  scene, 
the  proportion  and  the  shading  of  the  figures  according 
to  their  importance  for  the  drama. 

In  the  farcical  comedy  Schluck  und  Jau  (1900)  he 
aimed  at  uniting  joyous  caprice  and  sadness,  Shake- 
sperean  romantic  comedy  and  rude  realistic  comic,  but 
the  fusion  did  not  succeed  and  the  play  is  a  disappoint- 
ment. 

It  was  the  same  with  Michael  Kramer  (1900),  where 


GERHART  HAUPTMANN  201 

the  intensification  had  progressed  to  such  an  extent  that 
the  external  incidents  seemed  quite  indifferent.  In  Der 
arme  Heinrich  (1902)  the  dramatist  again  followed  his 
romantic  inclinations  but  did  not  make  them  so  accepta- 
ble to  the  public  and  the  critics  as  in  Die  versunkene 
Glocke.  The  epic  material  would  not  readily  accom- 
modate itself  to  the  demands  of  the  stage,  and  the 
few  instances  of  strong  external  effect  which  the  legend 
offered,  such  as  the  discovery  of  Heinrich 's  disease  and 
the  interrupted  sacrifice,  did  not  appear  because  of 
disinclination  to  all  material  effects.  Instead  the  bodily 
sufferings  of  the  unfortunate  hero  were  increased  to 
a  deep  soul-torture  bordering  on  madness  and  to  the 
girl  was  given  a  hazy,  dawning  sexual  desire  instead 
of  childish  inclination.  The  closing  of  the  play  in 
pomp  and  glory  did  not  produce  the  happy  effect  which 
the  dramatist  had  probably  promised  himself. 

After  Elga,  which  is  a  very  superficial  dramatization 
of  a  short  story  by  Grillparzer,  and  was  only  published 
later  (1905),  he  wrote  a  worthy  companion  piece  to 
Fuhrmann  Henschel  in  Rose  Bernd  (1903),  a  work 
full  of  great  and  most  deeply  affecting  tragedy.  The 
lot  of  the  unhappy  deserted  girl,  who,  for  fear  of  shame, 
kills  her  child  and  comes  under  the  law,  has  been  treated 
very  often  in  literature.  Goethe's  Gretchen  is  before 
us  as  the  greatest  of  all  these  unfortunates.  Even 
though  the  magic,  which  the  highest  literary  power  alone 
can  give,  be  lacking  in  poor  Rose,  after  all  she  appeals 
to  us  as  just  as  true,  her  fate  just  as  conclusive  and 
touching.  Here,  as  there,  we  see  a  lovely,  bright 
creature,  whose  beauty  excites  passion  and  evil  desires, 
surrender  herself  unsuspectingly  to  the  intoxicating 
happiness  of  first  love  until,  waking  from  her  dream, 


202  GERMAN  DRAMA 

she  is  compelled  to  recognize  that  she  is  guilty,  "given 
over  to  evil  spirits  and  to  a  criticising  unsympathetic 
humanity."  In  the  deepest  trouble  she  ripens  to  a 
woman,  out  of  the  child  develops  a  criminal.  The 
secondary  characters  also  and  the  whole  environment 
are  conceived  and  reproduced  just  as  truly  and  sympa- 
thetically as  the  heroine.  The  technique  is  admirable 
in  its  simple  logic  and  beautiful  symmetry,  and  assuredly 
a  later  time  will  count  this  work  with  its  lofty  and 
ripe  art  among  the  most  valuable  that  Hauptmann  has 
produced. 

The  highest  hopes  for  the  future  of  the  German 
drama  are  at  present  centred  in  him.  He  is  not  the 
great  writer  who,  writh  creative  imagination,  places  over 
against  the  real  world  its  counterfeit  in  a  new  self- 
created  one,  but  he  is  reckoned  among  the  precursors 
who  prepare  the  instrument  with  which  the  genius  may 
later  produce  the  most  glorious  work.  That  he  may 
soon  appear  is  the  wish  of  all  who  take  a  serious  interest 
in  our  drama  and  who  see  in  it  not  a  subject  of  light 
entertainment,  but  the  most  effective  means  for  the 
artistic  uplifting  of  the  whole  nation. 


THE  PRODUCT  OF  THE  CENTURY 

THE  question  as  to  the  importance  to  be  assigned  to 
the  nineteenth  century  in  the  history  of  the  German 
drama  is  not  too  easy  to  answer  because  a  number  of 
very  different  factors  are  to  be  taken  into  account. 

In  passing  judgment,  the  evolution  of  the  highest 
class,  of  tragedy,  will  have  the  greatest  weight.  Its 
prevailing  forms  remained  essentially  unchanged  during 
the  period.  The  attempts  to  oppose  to  the  classic  ideal 
of  beauty  new,  romantic,  realistic  or  naturalistic  forms, 
have  led  to  no  generally  recognized  results  and  the 
estimate  of  their  value  is  conditioned  by  theoretical 
suppositions  or  by  the  party-standpoint.  The  most  im- 
portant function  in  the  whole  range  of  the  arts  falls 
to  drama,  that  is,  by  the  visible  production  of  the 
incidents  of  the  sensible  and  psychical  worlds  to  exercise 
upon  the  most  extensive  classes  of  the  nation  an  im- 
mediate, deep  and  aesthetic  influence.  For  this  only 
Kleist  and  Grillparzer  come  into  consideration  along 
with  the  great  works  of  classic  times,  while  for  Hebbel 
and  Ludwig  a  fairly  large  circle  of  intelligent  sup- 
porters is  only  just  being  formed.  Hauptmann's  dramas 
are  still  too  modern  to  allow  one  to  judge  what  final 
importance  is  to  be  attached  to  the  great  success  of 
individual  works  and  still  less  can  any  other  work 
of  the  present  be  termed  a  lasting  addition  to  the  assets 
of  the  past.  There  is,  therefore,  to  be  noted  in  lofty 
drama  neither  assured  progress  in  matters  of  form  nor 
an  important  increase  in  the  number  of  possessions. 
203 


204  GERMAN  DRAMA 

In  contrast  with  this,  the  nineteenth  century,  in  ad- 
vancing beyond  Mozart,  contributed  to  musical  drama, 
a  work  of  great  importance,  Beethoven's  Fidelio,  and  a 
new  style,  the  Romantic.  By  two  great  masters,  Weber 
and  Wagner,  it  was  carried  to  the  highest  perfection, 
which,  it  would  seem,  is  not  to  be  surpassed.  After  a 
long  conflict  the  conviction  is  now  generally  accepted 
that  Wagner's  operas  constitute  the  greatest  work  of 
the  century  in  the  whole  field  of  drama. 

The  middle  classes,  play  and  comedy,  the  value  and 
influence  of  which  is  determined  essentially  by  their 
subjects  and  technique,  have  been  lifted  in  two  stages 
above  the  position  reached  by  Iffland  and  Kotzebue. 
First,  when  "Young  Germany"  and  its  successors  ap- 
propriated from  the  French  play  of  intrigue  the  more 
skilful  handling  of  plot  and  dialogue;  secondly,  when 
by  the  influence  of  Ibsen  and  Naturalism  the  list  of 
subjects  was  extended  by  the  moral  and  social  problems 
of  the  present  day,  the  characterization  intensified  and 
increased  illusion  effected  by  the  aid  of  an  analytical 
technique  more  nearly  akin  to  reality.  According  to 
their  nature  and  subjects  these  middle  classes  are  so 
determined  by  the  conditions  of  the  times  that  they 
but  rarely  produce  works  of  long  life  and,  therefore, 
what  is  attained  cannot  be  judged  according  to  the 
number  of  permanent  productions.  The  increase  of 
average  ability  is,  however,  unmistakable  when  we  com- 
pare the  works  of  the  best  play  and  comedy  writers 
of  the  present  with  those  of  their  predecessors. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  rhymed  tale  (Schicank),  the 
farce  (Posse}  and  the  folk-drama  offer  nothing  but  a 
picture  of  continued  decay  which  cannot  be  stayed  by 


PRODUCT  OF  THE  CENTURY      205 

individually  better  disposed  writers  or  even  those  more 
highly  gifted.  The  artistic  requirements,  which  orig- 
inate in  dramatic  form  and  the  nature  of  aesthetic  en- 
joyment, have  been  thrown  overboard  as  useless  ballast. 
Superficial  entertainment  by  senseless  comic,  insipid 
sentimentality  or  even  by  immoral  means  is  the  only 
object. 

To  determine  the  total  increase  of  new  works  which 
the  nineteenth  century  has  brought  the  German  theatre, 
we  now  possess  a  reliable  aid  in  Der  deutsche  Biihnen- 
spielplan,  which,  on  the  basis  of  official  information, 
has  noted  during  the  last  six  years,  from  Sept.  1,  1899, 
to  Aug.  31,  1905,  the  number  of  performances  in  all 
German  theatres  at  all  worthy  of  mention,  in  1905 — 427. 

The  dramas  which  have  appeared  since  1880  have 
been  left  unnoticed  in  the  following  list  because  it  can 
not  be  said  yet  which  of  them  will  be  permanent:  the 
dramas  between  1800  and  1880,  however,  have  been 
collected,  provided  that  they  have  been  performed  at 
least  ten  times  in  each  of  the  last  six  years  in  all 
German  theatres  combined.  If  the  number  has  been 
under  ten,  then  it  is  a  question  of  single  experiments 
or  of  revivals  set  in  motion  by  some  local  cause  or  other 
and  one  can  hardly  speak  of  a  real  continued  existence. 
The  figures  in  brackets  mean  the  number  of  perform- 
ances in  the  last  six  years  and  thus  permit  the  varying 
popularity  of  the  individual  works  to  be  seen,  even 
if  for  a  limited  period  only. 

On  this  basis,  then,  of  the  dramas  by  writers  whose 
chief  work  was  done  in  the  period  up  to  1830,  the  fol- 
lowing prove  to  be  living  on  the  stage  to-day: 


206  GERMAN  DRAMA 

SCHILLER,       Maria   Stuart    (137,   168,    157,   145,    140, 

247*). 
Jung f ran  von  Orleans   (103,  85,  113,  81, 

131,  185). 
Die  Braut  von  Messina    (36,  44,  48,  75, 

43,  131). 
Wilhelm    Tell    (176,    131,   209,    190,   274, 

412). 
Demetrius  (23,  35,  10,  23,  15,  74). 

GOETHE,         Faust,  Part.  II  (30,  36,  15,  11,  10,  19). 
HEINRICH       Der  zerbrochene  Krug  (37,  47,  35,  38,  53, 

VONKLEIST,      41). 

Das  Kathchen  von  Heilbronn  (62,  49,  48, 

72,  56,  64). 
Der  Prim  von  Hamburg  (32,  61,  27,  32, 

23,  54). 

GRILLPARZER,  Die  Ahnfrau  (23,  22,  26,  42,  49,  32). 
Sappho  (23,  37,  29,  54,  49,  52). 
Medea  (11,  28,  20,  52,  28,  63). 
Des  Meeres  und  der  Liebe  Wellen  (37,  31, 

40,  34,  35,  47). 
Der  Traum  em  Leben  (24,  31,  16,  ]5,  26, 

13). 

Weh'  dcm,  der  lilgt  (18,  13,  27,  15,  31,  30). 
Die  Judin  von  Toledo  (22,  28,  30,  28,  36, 

54). 

P.  A.  WOLFF, Preziosa,  music  by  Weber  (42,  45,  43,  70, 
52,  64). 

Of  the  dramatists  of  "Young  Germany"  and  their 
successors  the  following  are  still  played: 

*  1905  was  the  hundredth   anniversary  of   Schiller's   death. 


PRODUCT  OF  THE  CENTURY  207 

LAUBE,  Graf  Essex  (25,  16,  13,  26,  24,  18). 

Die  Karlsschuler  (29,  15,  19,  16,  21,  80). 

GUTZKOW,       Uriel  Acosta  (27,  24,  32,  45,  78,  38). 

Zopf  und  Schwert  (12,  25,  18,  12,  17,  28). 

FREYTAG,        Die  Journalisten    (150,  83,  93,   140,t  98, 
130). 

BRACHVOGEL,  Narziss  (34,  32,  24,  23,  34,  34). 

A  couple  of  older  historical  dramas  without  artistic 
value  are  still  popular  because  of  clever  technique  and 
of  popular  roles. 

REDWITZ,        Philippine  Welser  (15,  17,  12,  17,  25,  17). 
HERSCH,         Die  Anna-Liese  (50,  30,  43,  50,  44,  35). 

Because  of  its  regular  performance  in  Catholic  dis- 
tricts on  All-Souls-Day  the  following  survives: 

RAUPACH,       Der  Mutter  und  sein  Kind  (16,  15,  22,  21, 
17,  22). 

Otherwise  this  fearful  dramatist  and  his  celebrated 
contemporary  Halm  have  vanished  entirely.  Only  one 
work  by  Raimund  has  survived  and  also  one  by  Nestroy, 
whose  farces  were  formerly  so  very  often  repeated. 

RAIMUND,       Der  Versckwender  (66,  70,  61,  66,  89,  98). 

NESTROY,        Lumpacivagabundus  (62,  85,  155,  91,  134, 
89). 

Of  the  older  North  German  farces  one  still  survives, 
while  the  little  genre  picture  by  Schneider,  Der  Kur- 
mdrker  und  die  Pikarde,  vanished  in  the  last  year. 

f  1903  was  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  first  performance. 


208  GERMAN  DRAMA 

KADER,  Robert  und  Bertram    (95,  112,   121,    rj:J, 

112,  116). 

Undiminished  attractive  power  for  the  public  of 
the  smaller  theatres  is  possessed  by  dramatized  novels 
with  exciting  complications  and  theatrically  effective 
characters.  This  is  proved  by  the  stationary  figures  for 
the  plays  of 

FRAU  Dorf  und  Stadt  (49,  58,  41,  51,  65,  62). 

BIRCH-        Die  Grille  (31,  35,  46,  38,  40,  48). 
PFEIFFER,    Die  Waise  aus  Lowood  (42,  56,  39,  44,  32, 

48). 

But  the  end  of  the  older  civilian  comedy  is  coming, 
for  only  its  chief  representative  has  reached  the  limit 
of  ten  performances  in  each  of  the  last  six  years. 

BENEDIX,        Die  zartlichen  Verwandten  (24,  46,  49,  55, 
53,  100). 

For  the  present  the  writer  who  may  be  called  his 
next  of  kin  keeps  his  position  better: 

L'ARRONGE,    Mein  Leopold  (36,  60,  66,  59,  68,  83). 

Hasemanns   Tochter    (62,   76,   66,   70,   82, 

131). 
Doktor  Klaus  (107,  97,  90,  169,  119,  133). 

The  plays  which  Moser  wrote,  partly  alone,  partly  in 
collaboration  with  others,  serve  for  the  lightest  enter- 
tainment writh  continued  success. 

GUSTAV  Das  Stiftungsfest  (48,  25,  28,  41,  15,  30). 

VON  MOSER,  Ultimo  (28,  16,  18,  25,  17,  15). 

Der  Veilchenfresser   (54,  79,  95,  75,  114, 

83). 
Der  Bibliothekar  (48,  47,  41,  53,  98,  58). 


PRODUCT  OF  THE  CENTURY  209 

MOSER  AND    Der  Registrator  auf  Reisen  (21,  38,  34,  35, 
L'ARRONGE,    22,  57). 

MOSER  AND    Krieg  im  Fried&n    (77,   75,   65,   58,   123, 
F.  VON  146). 

SCHONTHAN, 

If  we  ask  what  has  been  preserved  of  those  writers 
who,  as  representatives  of  Realism,  were  looking  for 
new  paths,  away  from  the  beaten  highway  of  old  art 
and  of  routine,  the  result  as  it  refers  to  Hebbel,  the 
greatest  German  dramatist  of  the  century,  is  really 
shameful,  for  he  can  appear  in  our  list  with  only  one 
work: 

HEBBEL,          Maria  Magdalena  (21,  33,  47,  27,  39,  43). 

while  Die  Nibelungen,  which  comes  next  to  this  tragedy 
in  number  of  performances,  really  ought  not  to  be 
cited  because  in  the  last  four  years  it  has  not  reached 
the  limit  set: 

HEBBEL,          Die  Nibelungen,  Parts  I  and  II  (16,  8,  11, 

30,  22,  26). 
Part  III  (13,  4,  10,  20,  12,  6). 

So  little  does  Hebbel's  mighty  creation  find  a  place 
to-day  on  the  stage.  Fortunately  the  signs  are  in- 
creasing that  the  theatre  and  the  public  are  beginning 
to  show  him  greater  consideration  and  it  cannot  fail 
that  for  his  works  there  is  coming  a  time  of  more  fre- 
quent performance. 

Otto  Ludwig,  too,  has  not  a  full  claim  to  be  men- 
tioned with  the  one  work  which  is  to  be  considered 
here,  for  the  number  of  performances  of  Die  Makkabaer 
amount  only  to  4,  12,  2,  1,  3,  2. 


210  GERMAN  DRAMA 

LUDWIG,          Der  Erbfb'rster  (7,  43,  31,  40,  32,  18). 

There  is  at  least  a  continued  interest  shown  in  this 
affecting  drama,  because  the  goodly  numbers  are  not 
due  to  local  success  but  are  scattered  over  a  compara- 
tively large  number  of  theatres. 

A  striking  confirmation  of  what  was  said  of  Anzen- 
gruber  is  found  in  the  fact  that  the  popularity  of  his 
four  works  which  are  still  given  repeatedly  stands  in  a 
reverse  relation  to  their  artistic  merit: 

ANZEN-  Der  Pfarrer  von  Kirch f eld    (84,   71,   78, 

GRUBER,  123,  162,  114). 

Der  Meineidbauer  (71,  45,  51,  37,  60,  41). 
Der  G'wissenswurm  (13,  26,  15,  34,  32,  61). 
Das  vierte  Gebot  (23,  37,  39,  23,  28,  36). 

In  the  field  of  opera  the  following  older  works  are 
to  be  mentioned  on  the  same  hypothesis  as  the  spoken 
drama : 

BEETHOVEN,  Fidelia  (165,  145,  154,  167,  176,  182). 

WEBER,  Der  Freischutz    (240,  278,  243,  234,  248, 

261). 
Oberon  (56,  97,  56,  34,  79,  47). 

MARSCHNER,  Hans  II tiling  (48,  41,  54,  37,  33,  34). 

KREUTZER,      Das  Nachtlager  in  Granada   (87,  73,  60, 
77,  54,  75). 

LORTZING,       Zar  und  Zimmermann  (167,  154,  190,  165, 

198,  201). 

Der  WildscJiiitz  (105,  76,  95,  97,  96,  62). 
Der  Waffenschmied  (164,  145,  155,  139, 

158,  179). 
Undine  (186,  192,  217,  150,  184,  185). 


PRODUCT  OF  THE  CENTURY      211 

FLOTOW,         Alessandro  Stradella   (76,  57,  58,  50,  55, 

67). 
Martha  (167,  182,  190,  173,  180,  187). 

NICOLAI,          Die   lustigen  Weiber  von  Windsor   (147, 

137,  143,  141,  137,  154). 

Later,  because  of  the  overpowering  influence  of  Wag- 
ner, only  two  other  German  operas  in  the  old  style 
acquired  a  lasting  influence: 

BRULL,  Das  goldene  Kreuz  (28,  28,  40,  34,  33,  25). 

GOLDMARK,      Die  Konigin  von  Saba  (32,  43,  31,  49,  25, 

47). 

Otherwise  the  victory  belonged  to  the  great  tone- 
dramas  by  the  "master,"  the  number  of  performances 
being  of  all  the  greater  importance  because  the  most 
of  them  abound  in  insuperable  difficulties  for  the 
smaller  theatres: 

WAGNER,        Rienzi  (43,  30,  33,  21,  35,  42). 

Der  fliegende   Hollander    (202,   155,   194, 

187,  188,  218). 

Tannhauser  (269,  273,  269,  283,  286,  326). 
Lohengrin  (294,  294,  297,  284,  311,  341). 
Tristan  und  Isolde  (53,  72,  59,  60,  87,  68). 
Die  Meistersinger  von  Nurnberg  (142,  171, 

138,  176,  191,  192). 

Das  Rheingold  (52,  77,  105,  82,  80,  96). 
Die  Walkiire  (128,  131,  162,  148,  147,  168). 
Siegfried  (64,  86,  89,  115,  113,  127). 
Gotterdammerung  (59,  76,  78,  97,  85,  80). 


212  GERMAN  DRAMA 

Apart  from  some  operettas,  the  quoting  of  which  can 
be  spared,  all  dramatic  works  from  1800-1880  have 
been  named,  which  the  German  theatre  may  to-day 
consider  as  its  possession.  The  number  appears  large 
in  comparison  with  the  dramatic  inheritance  which 
earlier  centuries  left  their  heirs,  but  it  is  to  be  noted 
that  the  nineteenth  century  passed  without  great 
changes  in  regard  to  the  prevailing  tendency  of  art. 
So  soon  as  these  take  place  then  doubtless  almost  all 
that  belongs  to  the  passing  vogue  in  art  will  sink  into 
oblivion.  The  experience  of  earlier  times  teaches  that 
only  a  few  works  of  superior  and  absolute  merit  or  of 
lofty  contents  in  general  human  significance  defy  the 
changes  of  time.  Therefore  one  may  now  prophesy 
even  for  the  greater  number  of  the  above-named  dramas 
a  sure  death.  This  fate  will  overtake  first  the  older 
middle-class  plays  and  comedies,  standing,  as  they  do, 
on  a  lower  plane  in  psychology  and  technique. 

If  the  sum  total  of  the  century  in  this  field  were 
decided  only  by  the  compass  and  merit  of  the  increase 
in  new  works,  then  a  halt  might  be  made  right  here. 
But  two  other  factors  demand  notice  also  in  the  history 
of  the  drama,  dramatic  art  and  the  public. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  German 
drama  possessed  scarcely  a  single  worthy  temple.  The 
spectators  assembled  in  wretched,  uncomfortable,  dimly 
lighted  theatres,  the  stage  offered  for  illusion  a  very 
meagre  aid  with  its  badly  painted  movable  scenes  and 
views  and  very  rarely  was  care  bestowed  on  historical 
fidelity  in  scenery  and  dress.  The  staff  was  small  in 
number,  the  actors  had  to  play  the  most  varied  roles 
and  everywhere  had  to  assist  in  opera  as  well,  which 
only  here  and  there  had  a  few  trained  singers  at  its 


PRODUCT  OF  THE  CENTURY  213 

disposal.  The  regular  theatres  had  to  pay  their  own 
way,  only  a  few  courts  supplied  a  small  grant.  Of 
course  the  expenses  were  not  very  high  because  of  the 
simplicity  of  the  external  apparatus  and  the  small 
pay  of  the  actors.  The  latter  were  glad  if  they  got 
a  sure  home  and  had  a  modest  income. 

To-day  all  the  large  and  medium-sized  cities  in  Ger- 
many possess  respectable,  often  indeed,  grand  theatres. 
They  have  now  at  their  disposal  a  complicated  machinery 
and  artistically  painted  decorations  of  deceptive  ac- 
curacy; also  a  very  great  number  of  objects  for  equip- 
ment and  costly  costumes,  true  to  history.  However 
great  this  progress  appears,  it  brings  this  disadvantage 
in  its  train,  that  quick  changes  within  an  act  are  im- 
possible because  of  the  large  apparatus  to  be  set  in 
motion  every  time.  This  breaks  the  conception,  es- 
pecially in  the  older  plays,  divides  the  acts  into  a 
series  of  separate  scenes  and  thus  destroys  the  sense 
of  the  dramatic  technique  of  the  drama.  The  most 
modern  dramatists  have  sought  to  suit  themselves  to 
the  given  circumstances  by  avoiding  any  change  within 
an  act  and,  wherever  possible,  having  the  whole  action 
proceed  in  the  same  space,  a  procedure  favored  by  the 
modern  technique  which  brings  only  the  last  stage  of  the 
action  on  the  boards. 

The  enlargement  of  stage-space,  undertaken  for  the 
sake  of  the  opera,  is  prejudicial  to  combined  play,  while 
the  extensive  audience-chambers  of  more  modern  the- 
atres deprive  the  players  of  contact  with  the  public 
and  force  them  to  overstep  naturalness  in  speech  and 
movement,  in  order  that  word  and  gesture  may  be 
understood  by  all  hearers.  A  remedy  for  this  grave 
drawback  is  to  be  desired,  especially  for  the  large  towns 


214  GERMAN  DRAMA 

which  are  able  to  build  special  smaller  theatres  for  the 
play,  because  the  chief  tendency  of  dramatic  art  is 
now  toward  an  increased  refinement  of  psychical  expres- 
sion and  suggestive  effects. 

As  the  performances  of  the  players  live  on  only 
in  the  subjective  impressions  created  by  them,  a  com- 
parison of  former  ability  with  that  of  to-day  is  in 
general  excluded.  Even  the  testimony  of  the  same  wit- 
nesses in  the  field  is  not  to  be  trusted,  because  first 
impressions  are  strongest  and  youth  is  far  more  easily 
moved  to  enthusiasm  than  circumspect  age.  Objectively 
it  can  only  be  said  that  the  present  actors  have  as  a 
rule  command  over  a  higher  intellectual  culture  than 
their  predecessors,  and  that  specialization  of  roles  must 
increase  the  possibility  of  having  full  command  over 
special  departments.  From  this  it  may  be  concluded 
that  the  ability  to  act  well  must,  in  general,  have  in- 
creased, but  the  great  increase  in  theatres  and  the 
numerous  staff  which  they  employ  has  brought  it  about 
that  the  demand  for  really  talented  and  satisfactorily 
trained  actors  can  not  even  approximately  be  supplied. 
Therefore  the  complaint  is  general  and  justifiable  that 
there  is  scarcely  a  theatre  in  condition  to  offer  a  com- 
pletely satisfactory  cast  for  a  great  drama. 

Decisive  progress  means,  by  contrast,  the  driving 
out  of  empty  rhetoric  and  of  "stars,"  a  more  careful 
development  of  combined  play  and  an  endeavor  to  pro- 
duce more  direct  effect  by  finer  description  of  motives, 
and  by  a  staging  which  is  sympathetic,  historically  true 
and  corresponds  to  actual  life.  To  the  conductor  is 
now  granted  the  proper  and  necessary  power  of  regulat- 
ing, according  to  his  wish,  the  combinations  of  work 
on  the  part  of  the  numerous  forces  in  front  of  and 


PRODUCT  OF  THE  CENTURY  215 

behind  the  scenes,  so  as  to  help  the  play  to  become  a 
unit  in  embodying  the  purposes  of  the  writer. 

The  expensive  external  apparatus,  the  increase  of  the 
number  of  the  staff  and  their  salaries,  which  reach 
excessive  figures  through  competition  for  the  services 
of  every  available  actor,  have  greatly  increased  the 
expenditure  of  the  theatres.  Because  of  this,  regard 
for  income  has  become  far  more  compulsory  than  before, 
even  for  Court  theatres.  In  spite  of  the  subsidies 
granted  them,  they  are,  after  all,  even  more  than  form- 
erly, dependent  upon  the  ticket-money,  as  the  grant  in 
all  cases  covers  but  a  portion  of  the  expenses. 

Thus  there  is  impressed  on  all  theatres  more  sharply 
than  ever  the  character  of  an  industrial  institute,  and 
in  few  places  does  success  attend  the  effort  to  keep  out 
what  is  artistically  distasteful  by  a  sensible  balancing 
of  material  and  ideal  interests  or  to  withstand  the  de- 
basing inclinations  of  the  great  masses. 

Only  those  theatres  which  are  conducted  with  this 
noble  purpose  are  to  be  recognized,  without  reservation, 
as  homes  of  art  and  valuable  factors  in  the  spiritual 
life  of  a  nation.  They  alone  can  exercise  an  undis- 
turbed, strong  and  ennobling  influence  on  the  public. 
And  yet,  with  the  yielding  to  the  need  for  entertain- 
ment, which  is  practised  by  the  great  majority  of 
theatres,  a  higher  tendency  is  not  excluded,  and  along 
with  silly  farces  and  low  operettas  is  often  found  in 
the  same  place,  a  successful  effort  to  offer  meritorious 
works  in  dignified  form,  a  compromise  which  is  neces- 
sitated by  the  double  mission  of  the  stage  of  to-day. 

The  demand  that  the  lighter  wares,  rhymed  tale 
(Schwcmk},  farce  (Posse}  and  operetta,  be  completely 
banished  can  probably  never  be  fulfilled.  An  alto- 


216  GERMAN  DRAMA 

gether  too  large  proportion  of  the  public  demands  chiefly 
this  pabulum  and  the  only  thing  to  do  is  to  endeavor 
to  arrange  the  relation  of  the  artistically  valuable  to 
the  worthless  as  favorably  as  at  all  possible.  The  com- 
plaint that  the  public  of  to-day  takes  less  pleasure 
in  the  good  than  the  public  of  the  past  is  refuted 
by  an  impartial  test  of  the  facts.  At  no  time  have  the 
works  of  the  classic  writers  of  more  modern  and  most 
modern  times  enjoyed  such  eager  appreciation  as  at 
present.  Under  Goethe's  managership  of  the  Weimar 
theatre  two  to  three  evenings  in  a  year  on  the  average 
were  given  to  the  plays  of  Shakespeare,  which  may 
well  be  considered  a  reliable  standard,  a  number  now 
often  increased  tenfold.  That  a  trained  dog  or  the 
actor  of  an  ape's  part  should  come  on  the  stage  of 
one  of  the  best  theatres  in  plays  written  expressly  for 
them,  as  happened  seventy  years  ago,  seems  now  ex- 
cluded. 

In  this  respect  public  taste  has  surely  risen  and  if 
now  senseless  drollery  and  reckoning  on  concupiscence 
appear  in  more  disgusting  and  artful  fashion  than  be- 
fore, it  must  after  all  be  conceded,  that  apart  from 
some  theatres  in  large  towns,  no  further  decadence  is 
to  be  noted  in  this  respect  during  the  last  period,  while 
on  the  other  hand  interest  in  the  higher  classes  of  drama 
seems  to  be  increasing.  On  this  very  important  point 
one's  judgment  can,  of  course,  not  pretend  to  any 
general  validity,  when  supported  by  observations  made 
in  a  number  of  places,  because  local  conditions  are  too 
varied.  The  contending,  contrasting  forces  are  a  rigid 
and  narrow  conception  of  art  and  society  and  coarse 
materialism  on  the  one  side,  and  a  newly  awakened 
striving  for  beauty,  intensification  and  deepening  of 


PRODUCT  OF  THE  CENTURY  217 

thought  and  motive  on  the  other.  They  hide  the  pres- 
ent, their  scene  of  battle,  in  opaque  clouds  of  dust, 
especially  in  the  field  of  that  art  which,  more  than 
any  other,  is  conditioned  as  to  time  for  those  who  create 
and  those  who  enjoy.  But  the  struggle  itself,  the  eager 
party  divisions  are  after  all  a  sign  that  living  interest 
is  on  the  increase.  In  this  the  first  preliminary  con- 
dition of  intelligent  enjoyment  and  of  a  turning  away 
from  a  mere  sense-enjoyment  is  fulfilled  in  a  rather 
high  degree. 

The  historian  is  a  prophet  looking  backwards.  His 
sole  business  is  to  interpret  the  signs  of  the  past.  Par- 
ticularly in  the  history  of  art,  all  prophesying  as  to  the 
future  is  excluded.  Only  this  can  be  said,  that  the 
nineteenth  century,  after  long  neglect,  has  again  begun 
to  prepare  the  ground  for  an  art  of  lofty  style,  and 
therefore  its  last  effort  for  the  drama  has  not  been 
without  influence.  Whether  it  will  bear  fruit,  whether 
a  new  crop  will  spring  up  out  of  the  newly  ploughed 
furrows,  depends  on  those  who  will  cultivate  this  field 
in  the  future  and  win  new  harvests  with  the  aid  of  the 
creative  warmth  of  the  sun  of  genius. 


INDEX 


1.  AUTHORS 


Adler,  F.    (1857-     ),   163. 
Angely,  L.    (1787-1835),  37. 
D'Annunzio,    G.     (1864-1907), 

179. 

Antoine,  A.   (1858-     ),  148. 
Anzengruber,      L.       (1839-89), 

56,    108-119,    149,    151,    160, 

178,  210. 

Apel,  J.  A.   (1771-1831),  42. 
Aristophanes      (450?-385?     B. 

C.),  12,  114. 

Aristoteles   (384-322  B.  C.),  1. 
Arnim,  L.  A.  v.    (1781-1831), 

11,   12. 

Arnold,  D.    (1780-1829),  37. 
^Eschylus    (525-456  B.  C.),  15, 

18. 
Auber,  D.  N.  E.    (1782-1871), 

41,  123. 
Auerbach,    B.     (1812-82),    36, 

111. 

Bahr,  H.  (1863-     ),  180. 
Balzac,     H.     de     (1799-1850), 

140. 
Barmann,   J.    N.    (1785-1850), 

37. 
Baudissin,  Count    (1789-1878), 

9. 
Bauernfeld,  E.  von    (1802-90), 

50. 

Beer,  M.    (1800-33),  24. 
Beethoven,      L.      von       (1770- 

1827),  41,  204,  210. 
Bellini,  V.    (1801-35),   123. 
Benedix,     R.      (1811-73),     53, 

175,  208. 
Birch-Pfeiffer,      Cha  rlotte 

(1800-68),  36,  208. 


Bjornson,    B.     (1832-     ),    121, 

145,   149. 

Bleibtreu,    K.    (1859-     ),    189. 
Blum,  K.    (1786-1844),  36. 
Blumenthal,  0.  ( 1852-     ) ,  166. 
Bodenstedt,  F.  von    (1819-92), 

61. 

Bolsche,  W.    (1861-     ),  189. 
Borne,  L.    (1786-1837),  38. 
Brachvogel,   A.    E.    (1824-78), 

49,  207. 

Brentano,  C.    (1778-1842),   11. 
Bronte,    Charlotte     (1816-55), 

36. 

Briill,  J.    (1846-     ),  211. 
Buchholz,      W.       (1836-1907), 

100. 
Biichner,     G.      (1813-37),     40, 

151. 
Bulwer-Lytton,    E.     (1803-73), 

124. 


Calderon,     P.     (1600-81),     82, 

163. 
Cherubini,  M.  L.    (1760-1842), 

41. 
Cornelius,  P.    (1824-74),  44. 

Dahn,   F.    (1834-     ),  61. 
David,  J.  H.    (1812-39),  37. 
Dehmel,  R.    (1863-     ),   179. 
Dohm,  Hedwig   (1833-     ),  107. 
Dormann,    F.    (1870-     ),    178. 
Dreyer,  M.    (1862-     ),  179. 
Bulk,  A.    (1819-84),  41,   151. 
Dumas,     A.     pdre     (1802-70), 

47. 
Dumas,  A.  fils   (1824-95),  104. 


219 


220 


INDEX 


Echegaray,  J.    (1832-     ),   121. 
Eichendorff,     Jos.     v.      (1788- 

1857),   11,   182. 
Elimar,    Dmke    of     Oldenburg, 

107. 

Engel,  G.    (1866-     ),  163. 
Enghaus,  Christine    (1817-     ), 

81. 
Ernst,  O.    (1862-     ),  164,  180. 

Faber,  H.    (1860-     ),  163. 
Feuerbach,      A.      (1798-1851), 

127. 

Feuerbach,  L.    (1804-72),   127. 
Fitger,  A.   (1840-     ),  103,  121, 

149. 

Flaubert,   G.    (1821-80),    140. 
Flotow,   F.   v.    (1812-83),  211. 
Fouque",  F.  de  La  Motte  (1777- 

1843),  11,  87. 
Freytag,     G.      (1816-95),     50, 

207. 
Fulda,  L.    (1862-     ),  162. 

Geibel,   E.    (1815-84),   60,   88, 

108. 
Gemmingen,    O.   H.    v.    ( 1755- 

1836),  3. 
Genee,  R.,   106. 
Gensichen,    O.    F.     (1847-     ), 

106. 
George  II,  Duke  of  Meiningen 

(1826-     ),  120-122. 
Gessner,  S.    (1730-88),   16. 
Gluck,  C.  W.  v.   (1714-87),  41, 

133 

Goldmark,  K.    (1832-     ),  211. 
Goncourt,     E.     de     (1822-98), 

149. 
Goncourt,     J.     de     (1830-70), 

149. 
Goethe,  J.  W.  v.   (1749-1832), 

1,   2,   4,   5,   6,   7,   8,    13,    19, 

25,  27,  29,  33,  36,  38.  46,  49, 

63,  68,  74,  79,  82,  102,  137, 

172,  175,  194,  201,  206,  216. 
Gottfried    v.    Strassburg,    130, 

132. 

Gottschall,  R.  v.    (1823-1909), 
59. 


Grabbe,  C.  D.    (1801-36),  38- 

40. 

Greif,  M.    (1839-     ),  61. 
Griepenkerl,  R.    (1810-68),  41. 
Grillparzer,     F.      (1791-1872), 

8,   15,  24-33,  34,  35,  56,  57, 

82,    84,    151,    172,    201,   203, 

206. 

Gryphius,  A.    (1616-64),  12. 
Gutzkow,    K.     (1811-78),    46, 

48,  68,  207. 

Hackel,  E.   (1834-     ),  188. 
Halbe,  M.    (1865-     ),   176. 
Halm,  F.  (1806-71),  57,  207. 
Hamerling,   R.    (1830-89),   61. 
Hart,  H.    (1855-1906),  188. 
Hart,  J.    (1859-     ),   188. 
Hartleben,  0.  E.    (1864-1905), 

150,  177. 
Hauptmann,  G.   (1862-     ),  56, 

149,   150,   175,   187-202,  203. 
Hauptmann,      K.       (1858-     ), 

178,  188. 
Hebbel,    F.     (1813-63),    63-93, 

94,  96,  99,  100,  107,  126,  128, 

143,   151,   194,   203,  209. 
Hegel,  G.  W.  F.    (1770-1831), 

12. 
Heine,  H.   (1797-1856),  15,  46, 

124,  125. 

Hersch,  H.    (1821-70),  207. 
Heyse,  P.    (1830-     ),  61. 
Hirschfeld,  G.    (1873-     ),  175. 
Hoffmann,    E.    T.    A.     (1776- 

1822),  64,  101,  123,  124,  125. 
Hoffmannsthal,    H.    v.     (1874- 

),  185,  186. 
Holbein,    F.    v.     (1779-1855), 

24. 
Holz,  A.    (1863-     ),   149,   165, 

189,  192. 
Hugo,  V.    (1802-85),  36,  47. 

Ibsen,  H.  (1828-1906),  80,  86, 
93,  121.  141-145,  146,  149, 
191,  192,  204. 

Ifflland,  A.  W.  (1759-1814),  3, 
4,  8,  10,  52,  96,  204. 


INDEX 


221 


Immermann,     K.     L.      (1796- 
1840),   12,  38. 

Jacoby,  W.   (1855-     ),  167. 
Jerschke,  0.,   165. 
Jordan,  W.   (1819-     ),  61. 

Kadelburg,  G.    (1851-     ),  166. 
Kainz,  J.    (1858-     ),  172. 
Kaiser,   F.    (1814-74),  55. 
Kalisch,  D.   (1870-72),  54. 
Keller,  G.   (1819-90),  116,  127. 
Kielland,   A.    (1849-     ),   149. 
Kind,  F.    (1768-1843),  42. 
Kleist,   H.   v.    (1777-1811),    8, 

15-22,  24,  99,  106,  194,  203, 

206. 
Klingemann,    A.     (1777-1831), 

24. 

Klinger,  F.  M.   (1752-1831),  2. 
Koppel-Ellfeld,    F.     (1840-     ), 

166. 

Korner,  C.  G.   (1756->831),  89. 
Korner,    Theod.     (1791-1813), 

23. 
Kotzebue,   A.    v.    (1761-1819), 

4,  8,   10,   14,  23,  33,  36,  52, 

157,   167,  204. 
Kreutzer,      K.       (1780-1849), 

210. 

Langmann,  P.    (1862-     ),  178. 
L'Arronge,    A.    (1838-     ),    54, 

208,  209. 
Laube,   H.    (1806-84),   26,  46, 

47,  48,  123,  207. 
Lauff,  J.    (1855-     ),  135. 
Laufs,  C.,  167. 
Lensing,  E.    (1804-53),  67. 
Lenz,  J.  M.  R.   (1751-     92),  2. 
Leasing,  G.  E.   (1729-81),  1,  2, 

63. 

Lewinsky,  J.    (1835-     ),  100. 
Lindau,     P.      (1839-     ),     105, 

106,  107. 
Lindner,    A.     (1831-88),    103, 

121. 

Lingg,  H.  v.   (1820-     ),  61. 
Liszt,   F.    (1811-86),    126. 


Lortzing,    A.     (1803-51),     42, 

210. 

Lothar,  R.    (1865-     ),   184. 
Lubliner,  H.    (1846-     ),   106. 
Ludwig    II,    King    of    Bavaria 

(1845-86),    131. 
Ludwig,  0.    (1813-65),  80,  94- 

102,   151,  194,  203,  209,  210. 
Luther,  M.   (1483-1546),  96. 

Maeterlinck,      M.       (1862-     ), 

182—185 

Makart,  H.    (1840-84),    103. 
Malsz,  K.    (1792-1848),  37. 
Marbach,  0.    (1810-90),  107. 
Marr,  W.,  107. 
Marschner,     H.      (1796-1861), 

43,  124,  125,  210. 
Mehul,  E.  N.    (1763-1817),  41. 
Meyer-Forster,    W.    (1862-     ), 

165 
Meyerbeer,  J.   (1791-1864),  44, 

124. 
Moliere     (1622-73),     19,     111, 

161,    162. 

Moller,  M.  (1868-     ),  184. 
Mosen,  J.    (1803-67),  59. 
Mosenthal,  S.  H.  v.   (1821-77), 

58,  107. 
Moser,  G.  v.    (1825-1903),  53, 

107,  166,  208,  209. 
Mozart,  W.  (1756-91),  41,  204. 
Miiller,     F.      (Maler)       (1749- 

1825),  72. 

MOller,   Hugo    (1831-82),   54. 
Milliner,    A.    (1774-1829),    14, 

15,  26,  40,  96. 
Mfinch-Bellinghausen,  E.   F.  T. 

von   (1806-71),  57. 
Murad  Effendi   (1836-81),  106. 

Najac,  E.  v.    (1828-89),   107. 
Nestroy,  J.    (1802-62),  35,  55, 

207. 

Nicolai,  0.    (1810-49),  211. 
Niebergall,    E.    E.     (1815-43), 

56,  151. 
Niemann,  C.    (1854-     ),   165. 


222 


INDEX 


Nietzsche,      F.       (1844-1902), 

169-170. 

Nissel,   F.    (1831-93),  60,   108. 
Novalis   (1772-1801),  171,  182. 

Qffenbach,   J.    (1819-80),    105. 
Ohlenschiager,    A.    G.     (1776- 

1850),  11. 
Otto,  C.,  100. 
Otway,  T.    (1651-85),  186. 

Philippi,  F.  (1851-     ),  164. 
Platen-Hallermlinde,    E.    A.    v. 

(1796-1835),  11. 
Plautus    (254-184  B.  C.),  19. 

Racine   (1639-99),  86. 
Rader,  G.  (1810-68),  208. 
Raimund,  F.    (1790-1836),  34- 

37,  117,  207. 
Raupach,     E.     B.     S.      (1784- 

1852),   13,   24,   87,    135,  207. 
Redwitz,  O.  v.    (1823-91),  60, 

207. 

Ring,  M.    (1817-1901),  106. 
Roquette,     0.     (1824-96),    61, 

107. 

Rosen,  J.   (1833-92),  53,  107. 
Rosmer,  E.    (1866-     ),  179. 
Rossini,   G.    (1792-1868),   41. 
Rostand,  E.    (1868-     ),  162. 
Ruederer,  J.    (1861-     ),   178. 

Sachs,  H.    (1494-1576),  131. 

Sand,  G.    (1804-76),  36. 

Schack,  A.  v.    (1815-94),  61. 

Schenk,  E.  v.    (1788-1841),  24. 

Schiller  (1759-1805),  2,  5,  6, 
8,  10,  14,  15,  17,  18.  19,  22, 
25,  29,  36,  38.  40,  45,  46,  48, 
59,  60,  63,  64.  68,  78,  82,  89, 
90,  93,  95,  99,  101,  102,  103, 
121,  126,  133,  137,  151,  161, 
172,  175,  194,  206. 

Schlaf,  J.  (1862-  ),  149, 
178,  192. 

Schlegel,  A.  W.  v.  (1767- 
1845),  9,  10,  117. 


Schlegel,    F.    v.     (1772-1829), 

10. 

Schlesinger,  S.   (1832-     ),  107. 
Schmidt-Hassler,     W.      ( 1864- 

),  184. 
Schneider,      L.       (1805-1878), 

207. 

Schnitzler,  A.    (1862-     ),   180. 
Schonthan,    F.    v.     (1849-     ), 

53,  166,  209. 
Schonthan,    P.    v.     (1853-     ), 

166. 
Schopenhauer,  A.   (1788-1860), 

130. 

Schoppe,  A.  (1791-1858),  65. 
Schreyvogel,  J.  (1768-1832), 

38. 
Schroder,  F.  L.  (1744-1816), 

2. 

Schumann,  R.   (1810-54),  44. 
Schtitz,  W.  v.   (1776-1847),  11. 
Schweitzer,  J.  B.  v.   (1833-75), 

53. 
Scribe,  E.   (1791-1861),  47,  49, 

50,  59. 
Shakespeare  (1564-1616),  1,  2, 

5,  9,   10,   15,  38,  59,   71,   94, 

96,    97,    101,    102,    111,    115, 

121,   123,  161,   172,  194,  200, 

216. 

Sigl,  O.,  107. 
Skowronnek,      R.       (1862-     ), 

165. 
Sonnleithner,    J.     (1766-1835), 

41. 

Sophocles,  186. 
Spielhagen,   F.    (1829-     ),   61, 

106,  107. 

Spohr,  L.    (1784-1859),  42. 
Stein,  L.    (1863-     ),  167. 
Strauss,   Joh.    (1825-99),    105. 
Strindberg,  A.    (1849-     ),  145, 

146,  150. 
Sudermann,       H.       (1857-     ), 

152-161,  177. 

Thoma,  L.,  178. 
Thomas,  B.    (1865-     ),  167. 
Tieck,    Dorothea     (1799-1841), 
9. 


INDEX 


223 


Tieck,  L.  (1773-1853),  10,  11, 
14,  15,  38,  72,  124,  171,  182. 

Tirso  de  Molina  (1585-1648), 
163. 

Tolstoi,  Count  Leo  v.  (1828- 
),  146,  149. 

Topfer,  K.    (1792-1871),  36. 

Treitschke,  F.  (1776-1842), 
41. 

Uchtritz,  F.  v.    (1800-75),  24. 
Uhland,    L.     (1787-1862),    16, 
23,  64. 

Vega,  Lope  da  (1562-1635),  32. 
Voss,  R.    (1851-     ),  104. 

Wagner,  H.  L.    (1787-79),  2. 
Wagner,    R.    (1813-1883),    43, 

44,     45,     87,     120,     122-133, 

150,  195,  204,  211. 
Waltner,  O.  (1851-     ),  167. 
Walther  von  Stolzing,   131. 
Weber,  C.  M.  v.    (1786-1826), 

42,    43,    123,    124,    125,    204, 

210. 

Wedekind,   F.    (1864-     ),    181. 
Weigand,  W.,  175. 
Weilen,  J.  von    (1828-89),  59. 


Weissenthurn,       Johanna       v. 

(1773-1845),  36. 
Werner,    Z.     (1768-1823),    13, 

14,  15,  96,  182. 
Wesendonk,  M.,  130. 
Weyrauch,  A.   (          ),  55. 
Wichert,  E.    (1831-1902),  107, 

162. 

Wieland,  C.  M.  (1733-1813),  9. 
Wieland,  L.,  16. 
Wienbarg,  L.   (1802-72),  46. 
Wilbrandt,     A.      (1837-1904), 

103,  107,  108,  162. 
Wildenbruch,     G.     v.      (1845- 

1909),  100,  133-136,  152. 
Winter feldt,   A.   v.    (1824-89), 

106. 
Wolff,  P.  A.    (1782-1828),  36, 

206. 

Wolfram  v.   Eschenbach,    132. 
Wolter,    Charlotte     (18(34-97), 

60. 
Wolzogen,     E.     v.      (1855-     ), 

177. 

Zola,     G.      (1840-1902),     141, 

143,  191,   192. 
Zschokke,  H.   (1771-1848),  16. 


224 


INDEX 


2.  WORKS. 


Abenteurer     u.     die     Sangerin, 

Der,  185. 
Achilleus,  127. 
Afrikanerin,  Die,  44. 
Agnes  Bernauer    (Hebbel),  83, 

84. 
Agnes      Bernauer       (Ludwig), 

100. 

Agnes  Jordan,  175. 
Agnes  von  Meran,  60. 
Ahnfrau,  Die,  15,  26,  27,  206. 
Aladdin  oder  die  Wunderlampe 

(b'hlenschlager),   11. 
Alarcos,   10. 

Alessandro  Stradella,  211. 
Alexander  the  Great,  91. 
Alexandra,  104. 
Alexis,  13. 
Almansor,  15. 
Alpenkiinig  und  der  Menschen- 

feind,  Der,  35. 

Also  sprach  Zarathustra,  169. 
Alte  Biirgerkapitan,  Der,  37. 
Altenglisches  Theater,  10. 
Alt-Heidelberg,   165. 
Alte  Wiener,  119. 
Amerikafahrer,  Der,  177. 
Amphitryon,  19. 
Anatol,  180. 
Andere,  Die,   180. 
Andreas  Hofer,  13. 
Angele,  150,  177. 
Anna-Liese,  Die,  207. 
Argonauten,  Die,  28. 
Arme  Heinrich,  Der    (Weilen), 

60. 
Arme    Heinrich,    Der     (Haupt- 

mann),  201. 
Arria  u.  Messalina,  103. 
Aschenbrodel,   11,  39. 
Auf  dem  Heinwege,  149. 
Aufrichtigen,  Die,   162. 
Austreibung,  Die,  178. 

Ball  zu  Ellerbrunn,  Der,  36. 
Bannermann,    164. 


Barometermacher  auf  der  Zau- 

berinsel,  Der,  34. 
Bartel  Turaser,  178. 
Beiden  Klingsberg,  Die,  5. 
Bekenntnisse,  Die,  50. 
Belmonte  und  Constanze,  2. 
Bergschmiede,  Die,   178. 
Bertha  v.  Frankreich,  117. 
BerUhmte  Frau,  Die,  166. 
Biberpelz,   Der,    175,    198,    199. 
Bibliothekar,  Der,  53,  208. 
Bogadil,   106. 
Braut  von  Messina,  Die,  6,  14, 

206. 
Brautfahrt  oder  Kunz  von  der 

Rosen,  Die,  50. 

Brave  Leut'  vom  Grund,  119. 
Bruderzwist  in  Habsburg,  Ein, 

31. 

Brunhild,  60,  88. 
Brutus    und     Collatinus,     103, 

107. 

Burenspillen,  37. 
Biirgerlich     und     Romantisch, 

50. 
Burschen    Heimkehr    oder    der 

tolle  Hund,  Des,  55. 

Cardenio  und  Celinde,  12. 

Catilina,  141. 

Charlie's  Aunt,  167. 

Citronen,  107. 

College  Crampton,  5ii,  194. 

Comedy    of    Love,    The     (Die 

Komodie  der  Liebe),    141. 
Correggio,  11. 
Cyrano  de  Bergerac,  162. 

Dame  aux   Came"lias,  La    (Die 

Kameliendame),  104. 
Dammerung,  179. 
Dantons  Tod,  40. 
Datterich,  Der,  55. 
Deborah,  58. 
Demetrius    (Hebbel),  89. 


INDEX 


225 


Demetrius     (Schiller),    6,    89, 

206. 

Deutsche  Hausvater,  Der,  3. 
Deutschen  Kleinstadter,  Die,  5. 
Deutscher  Krieger,  Ein,  50. 
Deutsches  Theater,  10. 
Diamant,  Der,  73. 
Diamant      des      Geisterkonigs, 

Der,  34. 
Dichter    und    der    Komponist, 

der,  116. 

Ditmarschen,   Die,   91. 
Doktor  Klaus,  54,  208. 
Doll's  House,  A    (Ein  Puppen- 

heim),    86,    142. 
Don  Karlos,  2,  13. 
Don  Gil,  163. 
Don  Juan  und  Faust,  39. 
Don  Juans  Ende,  61. 
Doppelselbstmord,  116. 
Dorf  und  Stadt,  36,  208. 
Dornroschen,    11. 
Drahomira,   60. 
Dramatic   Art   and   Literature, 

10. 

Drei,  179. 

Drei  Reiherfedern,  Die,  159. 
Durchs  Ohr,  61. 

Egmont,  2,   194. 

Ehre,   Die,    152,   155. 

Ehrenschulden,  61. 

Einsame   Menschen,    150,   193. 

Einsame  Weg,  Der,  181. 

Eisgang,  177. 

Elektra,  186. 

Elfriede,  117. 

Elga,  201. 

Emilia  Galotti,   1. 

Enemy  of  the  People,  An   (Der 

Volksfeind),   142. 
Ephraims  Breite,  178. 
Erbforster,  Der,  96-98,  99,  210. 
Erdgeist,  Der,  181. 
Erfolg,  Ein,  106. 
Ernst,    Herzog    von    Schwaben, 

23. 

Eroberer,  Der,   177. 
Erziehungsresultate,   36. 


Esther,  33. 
Euryanthe,  43,  125. 
Eva,  104. 
Ewige  Liebe,  163. 

Fabier,  Die,  51. 
Fahnenweihe,  Die,  178. 
Fallissement,  Ein,  145. 
Familie  Schroffenstein,  Die,  16, 

17. 

Familie  Selicke,  Die,  149. 
Faust    (Goethe),  2,  7,  29,  206. 
Faust    (Grillparzer),  29. 
Faustschlag,  Ein,  117. 
Fechter  von  Ravenna,  Der,  58. 
Feind  im  Hause,  Der,  107. 
Fest  der  Handwerker,  Das,  37. 
Fidelio,  41,  204,  210. 
Fiesco,  121. 

Flachsmann  als  Erzieher,   164. 
Fleck  auf  der  Ehr',  Der,   119, 

160. 

Fledermaus,  Die,   105. 
Fliegende    Hollander,   Der,   43, 

124,  211. 

Florian  Geyer,   196. 
Frauenadvokat,  Der,   106. 
Frau  fur  die  Welt,  Die,  107. 
Frau  Lili,   163. 
Frau  ohne  Geist,  Die,   106. 
Fraulein  Julie,  145. 
Fraulein  v.  Scudery,  Das,  100. 
Freischiitz,  Der,  42,  43,  210. 
Freund  des   Fursten,  Der,   162. 
Friedensfest,  Das,  192. 
Friedrich  der  Rotbart,  127. 
Friedrich  II,  101. 
Fritzchen,  158. 
Friihlings-Erwachen,  181. 
Fuhrmann  Henschel,  200. 

Gastfreund,  Der,  28. 
Gefesselte   Phantasie,  Die,  35. 
Generalfeldoberst,  Der,   135. 
Genoveva   (Hebbel),  71,  72,  90. 
Genoveva   (Maler  Miiller),  72. 
Genoveva   (Tieck),  11,  72. 
Gerechtigkeit,  164. 
Gerettete  Venedig,  Das,   186. 


226 


INDEX 


Geschichte  aus  Kentucky,  Eine, 

107. 

Ghosts    (Gespenster),  142,  149. 
Gestiefelte  Kater,  Der,  10,   11. 
Getreue  Eckart,  Der,  124. 
Girondisten,  Die,  41. 
Glaserne  Patoffel,  Der,  11. 
Glockner  von  Notre-Dame,  Der, 

36. 

Gltick  im  Winkel,  Das,  158. 
Goldene  Eva,  Die,  166. 
Goldene  Kreuz,  Das,  211. 
Goldene  Liige,  Die,  163. 
Goldene  Vliess,  Das,  28,  32. 
Gotterdammerung,   128,  211. 
Gottin  der  Vernunft,  Die,  61. 
Gotz  von  Berlichingen,   1,  68. 
Gotze  von  Venedig,  Der,  59. 
Graf  Essex,  48,  207. 
Graf  Waldemar,  51. 
Grille,  Die,  36,  208. 
Griseldis,  57. 
Grosse  Glocke,  Die,  166. 
Grosse  Siinde,  Die,  180. 
Gross jilh  rig,  50. 
Grossmama,    179. 
Griindung  Prags,  Die,  11. 
Grime  Kakadu,  Der,  189. 
Gustav   Wasa,   11. 
G'wissenswurm,  Der,   116,  210. 
Gyges  und  sein  Ring,  85. 

Hagestolzen,  Die,  3. 

Halali,  165. 

Hamburgische  Dramaturgic,   1. 

Handschuh,  Der,   149. 

Hanna  Jagert,  177. 

Hanneles  Himmelfahrt,  197. 

Hannibal,  39. 

Hans  Heiling,  43,  124,  210. 

Hans  Lange,  61. 

Harold,  134. 

Hasemanns   Tochter,    54,   208. 

Haubenlerche,  Die,   134. 

Hauptmann     von     Kapernaum, 

Der,  106. 

Hedda  Gabler,  142. 
Hedwig,  23. 
Heerohme,  Der,  135. 


Heimat,  156,   157,  177. 

Heimgefunden,  119. 

Heinrich   der   Finkler,   59. 

Heinrich  und  Heinrichs  Ge- 
schlecht,  136. 

Henriette  Marechal,   199. 

Herbst,  184. 

Herraannsschlacht,  Die  (Grab- 
be),  39. 

Hermannsschlacht,  Die 
(Kleist),  20,  106. 

Hermann  und  Dorothea  (Top- 
fer),  36. 

Herod,  91. 

Herodes  und  Mariamne,  81. 

Herostrat,  163. 

Hero  und  Leander,  29. 

Herr  Senator,  Der,  166. 

Herzog  Bernhard,   59. 

Herzog  Theodor  von  Gothland, 
38. 

Hexe,  Die,  103. 

Hoehzeit  der  Sobeide,  Die,  185. 

Holofernes,  91. 

Hugenotten,  Die,  44. 

Ich  bleibe  ledig,  36. 

Im  Altertumscabinett,  107. 

Im  Bunde  der  Dritte,  61. 

Im  Hafen,  163. 

Im  weissen  Ross'l,  166. 

In  Behandlung,    179. 

Intruse,  183. 

Ion,    10. 

Iphigenie  auf  Tauris,  2,  27. 

Jager,  Die,  3. 

Jealousy,  monster  of  frightful 
mien  ( Eiferaucht,  das 
grosste  Scheusal),  82. 

Jesus  der  Christ,  41. 

Jesus  von  Nazareth,  127. 

Johannes,  158. 

Johannes  Herkner,   179. 

Johannisfeuer,  159. 

John  Gabriel  Borkmann,  143. 

Journalisten,  Die,  51,  207. 

Jtidin  von  Toledo,  Die,  32,  84, 
151,  206. 


INDEX 


227 


Judith,  68-71,  73,  90,  99,   194. 

Jugend,   170. 

Jugendfreunde,   163. 

Jugend  von  heute,  164. 

Julia,   80,   81. 

Julian  Apostate,  91. 

Julius  Caesar,  120,  194. 

Junge  Deutschland,  Das,  45. 

Junge  Siegfried,  Der,  128. 

Jungferngift,   117. 

Jungfrau     von     Orleans,     Die 

(Hebbel),  91. 
Jungfrau     von     Orleans,     Die 

(Schiller),  6,  121,  206. 

Kabale  und  Liebe,  2,  78. 
Kaiser    Friedrich    Barbarossa, 

39. 

Kaiser  Friedrich  II,  13. 
Kaiser  Heinrich  VI,  39. 
Kaiser  Octavianus,  10. 
Kaltwasser,  163. 
Kameraden,  Die,  163. 
Kammersanger,  Die,   181. 
Karlsschiiler,  Die,  47,  207. 
Karolinger,  Die,  133. 
Katharina  Howard,  59. 
Kathchen  von  Heilbronn,  Das, 

20,  21,  206. 

King  Alfred  of  England,  101. 
Kleine  Welttheater,  Das,  185. 
Kolberg,  61. 

Komtesse   Dornroschen,    107. 
Komtesse  Guckerl,  166. 
Komtesse  Julie,  150. 
Konigs  Befehl,  Des,  36. 
Konig  Harlekin,  184. 
Konig  Ingurd,  40. 
Konig  Laurin,  136. 
Konig     Ottakars     Gltick     und 

Ende,   30. 

Konig  Roderich,  60. 
Konig  Saul,   68. 
Konigin  von  Saba,  Die,  211. 
Konigskinder,  179. 
Konigsleutnaut,  Der,  49. 
Kreuzelschreiber,   Die,    114. 
Krieg  im  Frieden,  166,  209. 
Kritische  Schriften,  11. 


Kritische  Waffengange,  189. 
Kunst  und  Klima,  128. 
Kunstwerk  der  Zukunft,  128. 
Kurmarker    und    Die    Pikarde, 
Der,  207. 

Lady  From  the  Sea,  The   (Die 

Frau  vom  Meere),  142. 
League    of    Youth,    The     (Der 

Bund  der  Jugend),  141. 
Leben    und    Tod    der    heiligeu 

Genoveva,  10,   11. 
Lebe  das  Leben,  Es,  159. 
Ledige  Hof,  Der,  117. 
Ledige   Leute,  178. 
Leonce  und  Lena,  40. 
Libussa,  31,  151. 
Liebe  fur  Liebe,  106,  107. 
Liebelei,   180. 
Liebestraume,  179. 
Liebesverbot,  Das,  123. 
Little     Eyolf     (Klein     Eyolf), 

142. 

Lohengrin,  125,  126,  211. 
Lokalbahn,  Die,  178. 
Lorenzino,  175. 
Ludwig  der  Bayer,  24. 
Lumpacivagabundus,  207. 
Lumpengesindel,  Das,  177. 
Lustigen  Musikanten,  Die,   11. 
Lustigen  Weiber  von  Windsor, 

Die,  211. 
Lysistratus,  114. 

Madchen  aus  der  Feenwelt  oder 

der  Bauer  als  Millionar,  Das, 

34. 

Magda,  104. 
Makkabaer,    Die,    98-99,    100, 

194,  209. 
Maler,  Die,  103. 
Maria  de  Padilla,  59. 
Maria    Magdalena,    74-79,    84, 

89,  209. 
Maria  Magdalena,  Vorwort  zu, 

93. 

Maria  Stuart   (Ludwig),  101. 
Maria     Stuart      (Schiller),     6, 

206. 
Maria  und  Magdalena,  106. 


228 


INDEX 


Maria  von  Magdala,  61. 

Mariamme,  178. 

Marino  Falieri,   101. 

Marion,  105. 

Marius  in  Minturna,  107. 

Martha,  211. 

Martin  Luther  oder  die  Weihe 

der  Kraft,  13. 
Maskerade,  163. 
Master  Builder,  The  (Baumeis- 

ter  Solness),  142. 
Maximilian   Robespierre,  41. 
Mazeppa,  59. 

Measure  for  Measure,  123. 
Medea,  28,  206. 
Meeres  und   der  Liebe  Wellen, 

Des,  29,  206. 
Mein  Leopold,  54,  208. 
Mein    Wort   tiber    das    Drama, 

93. 
Meineidbauer,    Der,    115,    116, 

210. 

Meister,  Der,    180. 
Meister  Andrea,  60. 
Meister  Olze,   178. 
Meister  von  Palmyra,  Der,  162. 
Meistersinger     von     Niirnberg, 

Die,   131,   211. 
Mennonit,  Der,  134. 
Menschenhass     und     Reue,     5, 

157. 

Merlin,  13. 
Michel  Kramer,  200. 
Michel   Angelo,   82. 
Minna  von  Barnhelm,  1. 
Mirandola,   90. 
Miss  Sara  Sampson,  1. 
Mitmensch,  Der,  179. 
Modelle  des  Sheridan,  Die,  106. 
Moisasurs  Zauberfluch,  35. 
Moloch,  Der,  91. 
Monna  Vanna,   184,   186,   187. 
Morituri,  158. 
Milller    und    sein    Kind,    Der, 

207. 

Mutter,  Die,   180. 
Mutter,  Die,  175. 
Mutter  Erde,  177. 
Mutter  Gertrud,  104. 


Nacht  auf  Wache,  Eine,  37. 
Nachtlager    in    Granada,    Das, 

210. 

Napoleon   (Hebbel),  91. 
Napoleon     oder     die      hundert 

Tage,  39. 
Narziss,  49,  207. 
Nathan  der  Weise,  2,  63. 
Nebeneinander,   176. 
Nero,   103,   107. 
Neue  Gebot,  Das,  134. 
Neue  Herr,  Der,  135. 
Neunundzwanzigste       Februar, 

Der,  14. 
Nibelungen,  Die    (Hebbel),  87, 

89,   107,   128,  209. 
Nibelungen,  Die    (Jordan),  61. 
Novella  d'Andrea,  162. 

Oberon,  210. 

Oedipus   und   die   Sphinx,    186. 

Oper  und  Drama,  128. 

Orla,  41. 

Othello,  97. 

Pagenstreiche,  5. 

Pariser  Taugenichts,  Der,  36. 

Parisina,   107. 

Parsifal,  132. 

Passionierter      Raucher,      Ein, 

107. 

Pauline,  176. 
Penthesilea,   19. 
Pfarrer    von     Kirchfeld,     Der, 

109,  113,  114,  210. 
Pfmgstmontag,  Der,  37. 
Philippine  Welser,  60,   207. 
Pillars    of    Society,    The     (Die 

StUtzen     der     Gesellschaft), 

141. 

Pitt  und  Fox,  59. 
Ponce  de  Leon,  11. 
Post  Festum,  162. 
Powers  of  Darkness,  The    (Die 

Macht  der  Finsternis),   146, 

149. 

Preziosa,  36,  206. 
Prinz  Friedrich  von  Homburg, 

21,  206. 


INDEX 


229 


Probekandidat,  Der,   180. 
Probepfeil,  Der,  166. 
Promethidenlos,  188. 

Quitzows,  Die,  135. 

Rahab,  59. 

Ratcliffe,  15. 

Raub    der    Sabinerinnen,    Der, 

166. 

Rauber,  Die,  2,  48,  68,  121. 
Registrator    auf    Reisen,    Der, 

209. 

Renaissance,  166. 
Renaissance,    Die,    175. 
Revolution  in  Literatur,  189. 
Rheingold,  Das,  128,  211. 
Richard  III,  9,  115. 
Rienzi,  der  letzte  der  Tribunen, 

124,  211. 
Ring  des  Nibelungen,  Der,  87, 

122,  128,  131. 

Ritter,  Tod  und  Teufel,  184. 
Robert  der  Teufel,  44. 
Robert    Guiskard,    16,    18,    99, 

194. 

Robert  und  Bertram,  208. 
Robespierre,  59. 

Romantische  Oedipus,  Der,  12. 
Romanesques,     Les     (Die     Ro- 

mantischen),  162. 
Romeo     und     Julie     auf     dem 

Dorfe,  116. 

Rosamunde   (Korner),23. 
Rosamunde   (Weilen),  60. 
Rose  Bernd,  201. 
Rosen  von  Tyburn,  Die,  104. 
Rosenmontag,  177. 
Rosenmiiller  und  Finke,  36. 
Rosmersholm,  142. 
Rote  Hahn,  Der,  198. 
Rubin,  Der,  82. 

Sappho,  27,  206. 

Schatz  des  Rhampsinit,  Der, 
12. 

Schauspielerin,  Die,  92. 

Scherz,  Satire,  Ironie  und  tie- 
fere  Bedeutung,  39. 


Schluck  und  Jau,  200. 
Schmetterlingsschlacht,      Die, 

157,  158. 

Schritt  vom  Wege,  Ein,  162. 
Schuld,  Die,  14,  40. 
Schwester  Beatrix,    184. 
Schwur  der  Treue,  Der,  166. 
Seelenretter,  Der,  107. 
Shakespearomania,  40. 
Shakespearestudien,  94,  102. 
Shakespeares  Vorschule,  10. 
Sieben  Prinzessinnen,  Die,  183. 
Siebzehnjahrigen,  Die,   180. 
Siegfried,  211. 
Siegfrieds  Tod,  128. 
Simson,  41. 

Sittliche  Forderung,  Die,  177. 
Sklavin,  Die,  163. 
Sodoms    Ende,    155,    156,    158. 
Sohn  der  Wildnis,  ^>er,  57. 
Sohn  des  Fiirsten,  Der,  59. 
Sophonisbe,  60,  108. 
Spanisches  Theater,  9. 
Spatfruhling,  176. 
Spieler,  Der,  3. 
Star,  Der,  180. 
Stein  unter  Steinen,  100. 
Sternsteinhof,   109. 
Stiftungsfest,  Das,  208. 
Stille  Wache,  Die,  165. 
Strom,  Der,  177. 
Sturmgeselle      Sokrates,      Der, 

160. 

Talisman,  Der,  163. 
Tannhauser,  124,  211. 
Tante  Therese,  107. 
Templer   und    die   Jtidin,    Der, 

125. 

Therese  Raquin,  141. 
Tiberius  Gracchus,  101. 
Tochter    des    Wucherers,    Die, 

117. 

Tod  des  Tintagiles,  Der,  183. 
Tod  Tizians,  Der,  185. 
Toni,  23. 

Tor  und  der  Tod,  Der,  185. 
Torquato  Tasso,  2. 
Totentanz,  184. 


230 


INDEX 


Trauerspiel    des    Kindes,    Das, 

107. 
Trauerspiel    in    Sizilien,    Ein, 

79,  81. 

Trauerspiel  in  Tirol,  Ein,  12. 
Traum  ein  Leben,  Der,  29,  206. 
Traumulus,   165. 
Treuer    Diener    seines    Herrn, 

Ein,  30. 

Tristan,  60,  132. 
Tristan  und  Isolde,  130,  211. 
Tropfen  Gift,  Ein,  166. 
Trutzige,  Die,  117. 

Uber  den  Wassern,  163. 
Uber  die  Mauer,  107. 
Uber   unsere   Kraft,    145. 
Uber  den  Stil  des  Dramas,  93. 
Ulrich  von  Hutten,  59. 
Ultimo,  208. 
Undine,  210. 
Ungllicklichen,  Die,  5. 
Unter  Briidern,  61. 
Unterstaatssekretar,  Der,  162. 
Urbild  des  Tartuffe,  Das,  49. 
Uriel  Acosta,  48,  207. 

Valentine,  Die,  50. 
Vatikanische  Apollo,  Der,  127. 
Vampyr,  Der,  124. 
Vater    Der     (Strindberg),    145. 
Vater,  Der    (Weigand),   175. 
Vatermord,  Der,  90. 
Veilchenfresser,  Der,  208. 
Verhangnissvolle     Gabel,     Die, 

12. 

Verlorene    Paradies,    Das,    163. 
Verlorene  Sohn,  Der,  106. 
Verschwender,  Der,  35,  207. 
Versucherin,  Die,  107. 
Versunkene    Gloeke,    Die,    199, 

201. 
Vierte    Gebot,    Das,    118,    149, 

210. 
Vierundzwanzigste         Februar, 

Der,  13,  14. 

Von   Gottes   Gnaden,    104,    149. 
Von  Stufe  zu  Stufe,  54. 
Vor    Sonnenaufgang,    189,    191, 

192. 


Waffenschmied,  Der,  42,  210. 
Waise    aus    Lowood,    Die,    36, 

208. 

Waldleute,  178. 
WalkUre,  Die,  128,  211. 
Wallenstein    (Ludwig),   101. 
Wallenstein     (Schiller),    5,    6, 

121. 

Walpurgistag,  Der,   176. 
Was  1st  eine  Plauderei,  106. 
Waterkant,   165. 
Weber,  Die,  194,  195,  196. 
Weg  zum  Licht,  Der,  176. 
Weh'  dem,  der  Itigt,  31,  32,  82, 

206. 

Weisheit  Salomos,  Die,  61. 
When  We  Dead  Awaken  (Wenn 

wir   Toten   erwachen ) ,    143. 
Wert  des  Lebens,  Der,  184. 
Werther,  5. 

Wie  die  Alten  sungen,  165. 
Wieland   der   Schmied,   127. 
Wienerinnen,  180. 
Wild  Duck,  The    (Die  Wilden- 

te),  142. 
Wildfeuer,   58. 
Wildschiitz,  Der,  210. 
Wilhelm  Tell,  6,  194,  206. 
Wozzek,  40. 
Wunder  des  heiligen  Antonius, 

Das,  184. 

Zankapfel,  Der,  107. 

Zar  und  Zimmermann,  42,  210. 

Zartlichen     Verwandten,     Die, 

208. 

Zauberflote,  Die,  2. 
Zeitung  fiir  die  elegante  Welt, 

123. 
Zerbrochene  Krug,  Der,  17,  21, 

206. 

Zopf  und  Schwert,  48,  49,  207. 
Zriny,  23. 
Zu  Hause,  175. 
Zu  irgend  einer  Zeit,  92. 
Zwei  Eisen   im   Feuer,   163. 
Zwei  glUckliche  Tage,  166. 
Zwillingsschwester,  Die,  162. 


4th  Printing 

DRAMATISTS  OF  TO-DAY 

Rostand,     Hauptmann,    Sudermann, 
Pinero,  Shaw,   Phillips,  Maeterlinck 

By  PROF.  EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE,  JR.,  of  Union 
College.     With  gilt  top,  $1.50  net.     (By  mail,  $1.60.) 

An  informal  discussion  of  their  principal  plays  and  of  the 
performances  of  some  of  them.  A  few  of  those  considered  are 
Man  and  Superman,  Candida,  Cyrano  de  Bergerac,  L'Aiglon, 
The  Sunken  Bell,  Magda,  Ulysses,  Letty,  Iris,  and  Pelleas  and 
Melisande.  The  volume  opens  with  a  paper  "  On  Standards  of 
Criticism,"  and  concludes  with  "Our  Idea  of  Tragedy,"  and  an 
appendix  of  all  the  plays  of  each  author,  with  dates  of  their  first 
performance  or  publication. 

Bookman :  "  He  writes  in  a  pleasant,  free-and-easy  way.  .  .  . 
He  accepts  things  chiefly  at  their  face  value,  but  he  describes 
them  so  accurately  and  agreeably  that  he  recalls  vividly  to  mind 
the  plays  we  have  seen  and  the  pleasure  we  have  found  m  them." 

New  York  Evening  Post :  "It  is  not  often  nowadays  that  a 
theatrical  book  can  be  met  with  so  free  from  gush  and  mere 
eulogy,  or  so  weighted  by  common  sense  ...  an  excellent 
chronological  appendix  and  full  index  .  .  .  uncommonly  useful 
for  reference." 

Dial :  "  Noteworthy  example  of  literary  criticism  in  one  of  the 
most  interesting  of  literary  fields.  .  .  .  Well  worth  reading  a 
second  time." 

The    GERMAN    DRAMA   of  the 
NINETEENTH  CENTURY 

By  GEORG    WITKOWSKI.       Translated   by    Prof. 
L.  B.  HORNING.     i2mo.     Probable  price,  $1.25  net. 

This  brief  but  brilliant  monograph  after  a  great  success  on 
the  continent  is  to  be  published  simultaneously  in  America  and 
England. 

The  book  is  divided  into  five  headings,  representing  chrono» 
logically  the  distinct  periods  which  marked  German  dramatic 
literature  during  the  nineteenth  century  : 

(i)  The  German  drama  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  ; 
(2)  The  German  drama  from  1800-1830  ;  (3)  The  German  drama 
from  1830-1885  ;  (4)  The  German  drama  from  1885-1900 ;  (5)  The 
product  of  the  century. 

Kleist.Grillparzer,  Hebbel,  Ludwig,  Wildenbruch,  Sudermann, 
Hauptmann,  and  minor  dramatists  receive  attention. 

HENRY   HOLT  AND    COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS  NEW    YORK 


WAGNER'S  ART,  LIFE.  AND  THEORIES 

Selections  from  his  Writings  translated  by  E.  L.  BURLINGAME, 
with  a  Preface  and  drawings  of  the  Bayreuth  Opera  House, 
etc.  Revised  Edition.  jM  printing.  i2mo.  $1.50  net.  By 
mail,  $1.62. 

The  contents  includes  The  Autobiography— The  Love  Veto, 
being  the  Story  of  the  First  Performance  of  an  Opera— A  Pil- 
grimage to  Beethoven— An  End  in  Paris— Der  Freischiitz  in 
Paris  -  The  Music  of  the  Future  —  Tannhauser  in  Paris  — The 
Purpose  of  the  Opera— Musical  Criticism-The  Legend  of  the 
Nibelungen. 

WAGNER'S  RING  OF  THE  NIBELUNG 

By  G.  T.  DIPPOLD.    Revised  Edition     bth  printing.    $1.50. 

The  mythological  basis  is  explained.  (76  pp.)  Then  the  stories 
of  the  four  music  dramas  are  given  with  translations  of  many 
passages  and  some  description  of  the  music.  (160  pp.) 

BANISTER'S  MUSIC 

A  small  but  comprehensive  book  on  musical  theory.  ^th 
printing.  i6mo.  80  cents  net. 

"One  would  have  to  buy  half  a  dozen  volumes  to  acquire  the 
contents  of  this  one  little  book."— N.  Y.  Times. 

JOHNSON'S  (Helen  K.,  «/.)  OUR  FAMILIAR  SONGS 
AND  THOSE  WHO  MADE  THEM 

300  standard  songs  of  the  English-speaking  race,  arranged  with 
piano  accompaniment,  and  preceded  by  sketches  of  the 
writers  and  histories  of  the  songs,  nth  printing.  $3.00. 

THE  NIBELUNGENLIED 

Translated  by  GEORGE  H.  NCEDLEK  into  rhymed  English  verse 
in  the  metre  of  the  original,  ad  printing.  348  pp.  $1.75  net, 

"At  last  we  have  an  English  translation  in  every  way  worthy 
of  the  original."— Nation. 

"This  notable  achievement  of  George  Henry  Needier  is  to  be 
felicitated  upon  conveying  to  the  English  ear  the  rugged  music 
and  the  massive  impact  of  the  German.  ...  A  scholarly  intro- 
duction."— Chicago  Record- Herald. 

FOTHERGILL'S  THE  FIRST  VIOLIN 

A  novel  giving  a  remarkably  true  picture  of  German  musical 
life,  aist  printing.  $1.00. 


HENRY    HOLT     AND     COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS  NEW    YORK 


FRANCKE'S   GERMAN    LITERATURE 

As  Determined  by  Social  Forces.  Being  the  fourth  and 
enlarged  edition  of  the  author's  Social  Forces  in  German 
Literature. 

By  PROF.  KUNO  FRANCKE  OF  HARVARD. 
595  pp.     8vo.     $2.50,  net. 

A  critical,  philosophical,  and  historical  account  of  German 
literature  that  is  "destined  to  be  a  standard  work  for  both  profes- 
sional and  general  uses"  (Dial).  Its  wide  scope  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  it  begins  with  the  sagas  of  the  fifth  century  and  ends  with 
Sud^rmann's  biblical  drama  Johannes  (1898). 

"The  range  of  vision  is  comprehensive,  but  the  details  are  not 
obscured.  The  splendid  panorama  of  German  literature  is  spread 
out  before  us  from  the  first  outburst  of  heroic  song  in  the  dim  days 
of  the  migrations,  down  to  the  latest  disquieting  productions  of  the 
Berlin  school.  We  owe  a  debt  of  gratitude  to  the  author  who  has 
led  us  to  a  commanding  height  and  pointed  out  to  us  the  kingdoms 
of  the  spirit  which  the  genius  of  Germany  has  conquered.  The 
frequent  departures  from  the  orthodox  estimates  are  the  result  of 
the  new  view-point.  They  are  often  a  distinct  addition  to  our 
knowledge.  .  .  .  To  the  study  of  German  literature  in  its  organic 
relation  to  society  this  book  is  the  best  contribution  in  English  that 
has  yet  been  published." — The  Nation. 

"It  is  neither  a  dry  summary  nor  a  wearisome  attempt  to  in- 
clude every  possible  fact.  ...  It  puts  the  reader  in  centre  o' 
the  vital  movements  of  the  time.  .  .  .  One  often  feels  as  if  tb 
authors  treated  addressed  themselves  persona' ly  to  him;  the  dis 
course  coming  not  through  bygone  dead  books,  but  rather  through 
living  men." — Prof.  Friedrich  Paulsen  of  University  of  Berlin. 

"A  noble  contribution  to  the  history  of  civilization,  and  valu- 
able not  only  to  students  of  German  literature,  but  to  all  who  are 
interested  in  the  progress  of  our  race." — The  Hon.  Andrew  D. 
White,  ex-President  of  Cornell  University. 

"For  the  first  time  German  literature  has  been  depicted  with 
a  spirit  that  imparts  to  it  organicyuuity  .  .  .  rich  in  well -weighed, 
condensed  judgments  of  writers  .  .  not  mere  rewordings  of  the 
opinions  of  standard  critics.  .  .  .  The  style  is  clear,  crisp,  and  un- 
obtrusive; .  .  .  destined  to  be  a  standard  work  for  both  professional 
and  general  uses." — The  Dial. 

U'17'MT?  V  Wr^T  T  J8r  C*C\  34  West  33d  Street,  N.  Y. 

HblNKY  H.UL1  &.  UU..  378  Wafouh  Ave.,  Chicago 


KLENZE'S   DEUTSCHE   GEDICHTE 

With  notes  and  introduction  by  CAMILLO  VON  KLENZE, 
Professor  in  Brown  University.  xiv  +  33i  pp.  i6mo. 
90  cents. 

About  fifty  poets  are  represented,  among  them  (the  number 
of  selections  bracketed  after  each)  Gunther  [2],Gleim  [2],  Klop- 
stock  [3],  Voss  (V,  Burger  [3],  Schubart  [2],  Goethe  [35],  Schiller 
[18],  Arndt  [3],  KOrner  [3],  Schenkendorf  [3],  Ruckert  [8;,  the 
Schlegels  [3],  Tieck  [2],  Novalis  [I],  A.  von  Arnim  [T,  Brentano 
[2],  Eichendorff  [6],  Chamisso  \$,  Platen  [5!,  Uhland  [16],  W. 
MQller  [2],  Lenau  [5],  Heine  [38],  Freiligrath  [9],  Herwegh  [4], 
Griin  [2],  Geibel  [12],  Scheffel  [2],  Bodenstedt  [2],  Heyse  [i], 
Schack  [l],  Wagner  [i]. 

J.  T.  Hatfield,  Professor  in  Northwestern  University,  III.:— A  de- 
lightful book,  worth  its  weight  in  gold.  The  fine  poetic  feeling  of  the 
compiler  has  given  a  very  choice  set  of  those  inapproachably  beautiful 
lyrics  which  adorn  German  literature. 

GOETHE'S    POEMS 

Selected,  and  edited  with  introduction  and  notes,  by  JULIUS 
GOEBEL,  Lecturer  in  Harvard  University,  xix  +239  pp. 
i6mo.  80  cents. 

Gives  more  than  a  hundred  of  Goethe's  best  short  poems, 
representing  every  period  of  his  literary  life.  The  general 
introduction  discusses  Goethe's  position  as  a  world-poet.  The 
minor  introductions  to  the  various  periods  and  the  accompanying 
notes  give  all  the  historical  and  biographical  information  neces- 
sary to  a  full  understanding  of  the  poems  and  the  influences 
under  which  they  were  written. 

SCHILLER'S    POEMS 

Edited  by  JOHN  S.  NOLLEN,  Professor  in  Indiana  Uni- 
versity. xlii+377pp.  i6mo.  80  cents. 

A  careful  selection  of  Schiller's  best  lyrics  and  ballads,  made 
with  the  speciaJ  purpose  of  showing  the  relation  between  Schiller's 
poetry  and  his  life,  and  to  bring  out  his  relation  to  Goethe  and  to 
the  aesthetic  and  philosophic  movement  of  the  classical  period  in 
German  literature. 

HOI  T  Ri  TO  34  West  33d  Street,  IT.  T. 

nULl    QL  L.U.          478 WabashAve., Chicago 

Ocii,  06) 


Recent  Poetry  of  Distinction 

HERO   AND   LEANDER 

By  MARTIN  SCHUT/.E  of  the  University  of  Chicago.  Probable 
price,  $1.25  net. 

A  poetic  drama  of  unusual  merit.  While  several  authors  have 
tried  this  theme,  probably  no  one  before  has  brought  these  ill- 
starred  lovers  so  close  to  our  sympatliies.  Profewor  Schiitze  has 
imagined  new  and  striking  episodes,  and  minor  characters  who  lend 
added  life  and  body  to  the  original  slender  legend. 

RAHAB 

A  Poetic  Drama  in  Three  Acts.  By  RICHARD  BURTON,  author  of 
"Literary  Likings,"  "Forces  in  Fiction,"  "Life  of  Whittier," 
etc.  119  pp.  12mo.  $1.25  net.  By  mail,  $1.31. 

A  drama  of  the  fall  of  Jericho,  and  especially  of  the  part  which 
the  enchantress,  Rahab,  played. 

"  .  .  .A  poetic  drama  of  high  quality.  .  .  .  Simply  and  fluently  written, 
with  many  felicities  of  phrase.  .  .  .  Plenty  of  dramatic  action." — New 
York  Times  Review. 

Handled  with  great  ingenuity  and  often  with  strong  dramatic  effect  .  .  . 
much  poetic  beauty  in  the  lines  .  .  .  and  the  action  is  well  sustained." — 
Chicago  Record-Herald. 

THE   PRINCESS   OF   HANOVER 

A  Play.  By  MARGARET  L.  WOODS,  author  of  "A  Village  Trag- 
edy." $1.50  net.  By  mail,  $1.57. 

Thomas  Hardy  calls  this  play  "the  book  I  have  read  with  the 
most  interest  and  pleasure  during  the  year."  The  London  Times 
says:  "It  reminds  us  at  every  turn  of  some  of  the  best  Elizabethan 
dramatists." 

APOLLO  AND  THE  SEAMAN  AND  OTHER  POEMS 

By  HERBERT  TRENCH.     12mo.     Probable  price,  $1.50  net. 
The  author  is  already  very  favorably  known  by  his  Deirdre  Wedded 
and  Other  Poems. 

"  Full  of  magnificent  things." — WILLIAM  ARCHER. 

"Unique  as  'The  Ancient  Mariner.'  " — C.  K.  CHESTERTON  in  the  Dotty 
News. 

"Deep  with  thought;  deep  with  significance." — GEORGE  MEREDITH. 

"  Here  at  length  is  an  Englishman  singing  from  the  heights  which  Goethe 
reached." — FRANK  HARRIS  in  Vanity  Fair. 

Arthur  Colton's  HARPS   HUNG   UP   IN   BABYLON 

Some  forty  poems,  many  of  which  first  appeared  in  TJte  Atlantic, 
Century,  Scribner's,  etc.  $1.25  net.  By  mail,  $1.30. 

"  His  opening  lyric  is  as  lovely  a  bit  of  melody  as  one  will  find  in  recent 
poetry.  Mr.  Colton's  work  .  .  .  has  a  touch  of  its  own  and  a  charm  of 
personality." — Miss  JESSIE  B.  RITTENHOUSF,  in  Putnam's  Monthly. 

"  He  has  grace,  scholarship — his  adaptations  of  Horace  are  excellent — 
and  unfailing  optimism." — The  Spectator  (London). 


"  The  most  complete  and  authoritative  .  .  .  pre-eminently  the 
man  to  write  the  book  .  .  .  full  of  the  spirit  of  discerning 
criticism.  .  .  .  Delightfully  engaging  manner,  with  humor, 
allusiveness  and  an  abundance  of  the  personal  note." — Richard  Aid- 
rich  in  New  York  Times  Review.  (Complete  notice  on  application.) 

CHAPTERS  OF  OPERA 

Being  historical  and  critical  observations  and  records  concerning 
the  Lyric  Drama  in  New  York  from  its  earliest  days  down  to  the 
present  time. 

By  HENRY  EDWARD  KREHBIEL 

Musical  critic  of  the  New  York  Tribune,  Author  of  "Music  and 
Manners  in  the  Classical  Period,"  "Studies  in  the  Wagnerian 
Drama,"  "  How  to  Listen  to  Music,"  etc.  With  over  70  portraits 
and  pictures  of  Opera  Houses.  Second  edition,  revised. 

$3.50  net  ;  by  mail  $3.72.     Illustrated  circular  on  application. 

This  is  perhaps  Mr.  Krehbiel's  most  important  book.  The 
first  seven  chapters  deal  with  the  earliest  operatic  performances  in 
New  York.  Then  follows  a  brilliant  account  of  the  first  quarter- 
century  of  the  Metropolitan,  1883-1908.  He  tells  how  Abbey's  first 
disastrous  Italian  season  was  followed  by  seven  seasons  of  German 
Opera  under  Leopold  Damrosch  and  Stanton,  how  this  was  tem- 
porarily eclipsed  by  French  and  Italian,  and  then  returned  to  dwell 
with  them  in  harmony,  thanks  to  Walter  Damrosch's  brilliant  crusade, 
— also  of  the  burning  of  the  opera  house,  the  vicissitudes  of  the 
American  Opera  Company,  the  coming  and  passing  of  Grau  and 
Conried,  and  finally  the  opening  of  Oscar  Hammerstein's  Manhattan 
Opera  House  and  the  first  two  seasons  therein,  1906-08. 

"  Presented  not  only  in  a  readable  manner  but  without  bias  .  .  .  ex- 
tremely interesting  and  valuable." — Nation. 

"The  illustrations  are  a  true  embellishment  .  .  .  Mr.  Krehbiel's  style 
was  never  more  charming-.  It  is  a  delight." — Philip  Hale  in  Boston  Hernia. 

"  A  readable  and  valuable  book,  which  no  one  who  is  interested  in  the 
subject  can  afford  to  leave  out  of  his  library  .  .  .  written  in  entertaining 
manner,  and  it  is  comprehensive." — Putnam. 

"  Invaluable  for  purpose  of  reference  .  .  .  rich  in  critical  passages  .  .  . 
all  the  great  singers  of  the  world  have  been  heard  here.  Most  of  the  treat 
conductors  have  come  to  our  shores.  .  .  .  Memories  of  them  which  serve 
to  humanize,  as  it  were,  his  analyses  of  their  work." — Pfeiv  York  Tribune. 

*%I  f  the  reader  will  send  his  name  and  address,  the  publisher  will  send,  from 
time  to  time,  information  regarding  their  new  books. 

HENRY     HOLT    AND     COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS  ,  NEW  YORK 


"One  »f  th*  miit  tmfirtant  i».*j  in  muile  that  hat  tvir  tun  i 
W,  J.   HENDERSON  in  the  N.  Y.  TIMES. 

7TH  PRINTING,  with  a  chapter  by  H.  E.  KREHBIEL, 
covering  Richard  Strauss,  Cornelius,  Goldmark,  Kienzl,  Hutn- 
perdinck,  Smetana,  Dvorak,  Charpentier,  Elgar,  etc. 

LAVIGNACS 

Music  and  Musicians 

Translated  by  WILLIAM  MARCHANT. 

Witn    additional   chapters   by   HENRY  E.    KREHBIEL  on 
luusic  IN  AMERICA  and  THE  PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE  ART  OF  Music. 

With  94  Illustrations  and  510  examples  in  Musical  Notation.  $18  pp.,  izmo, 
£1.7;  net.  By  mail,  $1.91. 

<J  A  brilliant,  sympathetic  and  authoritative  work  cover- 
ing musical  sound,  the  voice,  musical  instruments,  con- 
struction esthetics  and  the  history  of  music.  A  veritable 
musical  cyclopedia,  with  some  thousand  topics  in  the  index. 

W.  F.  APTHORP  in  the  TRANSCRIPT:— 

Admirably  written  in  its  way,  capitally  indexed,  and  of  genuine  valut 
ai  a  handy  book  of  reference.  It  contains  an  immense  amount  of 
condensed  information  on  almost  every  point  connected  with  the  art 
which  it  were  well  for  the  intelligent  music-lover  to  know.  ...  Mr. 
Marchant  has  done  his  hard  task  of  translating  exceedingly  well.  ... 
Well  worth  buying  and  owning  by  all  who  are  interested  in  musical 
knowledge. 

W,  J.  HENDERSON  in  the  N.  Y.  TIMES  :— 

A  truly  wonderful  production  ;  .  .  .  a  long  and  exhaustive  account 
of  the  manner  of  using  the  instruments  of  the  orchestra,  with  fomi 
highly  instructive  remarks  on  coloring.  .  .  .  Harmony  he  treat* 
not  only  very  fully,  but  also  in  a  new  and  intensely  interesting  way. 
,  .  .  Counterpoint  is  discussed  with  great  thoroughness.  ...  It 
seems  to  have  been  his  idea  when  he  began  to  let  no  interesting  topic 
escape.  .  .  .  The  wonder  is  that  the  author  has  succeeded  in 
making  those  parts  of  the  book  which  ought  naturally  to  be  dry  so  read* 
able.  ...  A  style  which  can  be  fairly  described  as  fascinating. 
...  It  will  serve  as  a  general  reference  book  for  either  the  musician 
or  the  music-lover.  It  will  save  money  in  the  purchase  of  a  library  by 
filling  the  places  of  several  smaller  books.  .  .  .  A  complete  directory 
of  musical  literature.  .  .  .  One  of  the  most  important  books  on 
music  that  have  ever  been  published. 

HENRY   HOLT   &    COMPANY, 

TORK.  (»ili,'oj).  CHICAGO. 


German  Classical  Texts 

Goethe:      Dichtung    und    Wahrheit.      Sdortions.      Edited   by 
H.  C.  G.  VON  JAGEMANN  of  Harvard.     80  cents. 

• Egmont.     Edited  by  R.  W.  DEERING  of   Western   Reserve 

University.     70  cents. 

Faust.    ERSTER  TEIL.     Edited  by  JULIUS  GOEBEL  of  the 

University  of  Illinois.     $1.12. 

Gbtz  von  Berlichingen.      Edited  by  FRANK  P.   GOODRICH 

of  Williams  College.     70  cents. 

Hermann  und  Dorothea.     Edited  by  CALVIN  THOMAS  of 

Columbia  University.     Vocabulary.     40  cents. 

Iphigenie  auf  Tauris.      Edited  by  MAX  WINKLER  of  the 

University  of  Michigan.     70  cents. 

Poems.      Edited   by  JULIUS  GOEBEL  of  the   University  of 

Illinois.     80  cents. 

Lessing:    Minna  von  Barnhelm.      Edited  by  A.  B.  NICHOLS  of 
Simmons  College.     60  cents.     With  vocabulary,  75  cents. 

—  Nathan  der  Weise.     Edited  by  H.  C.  G.  BRANDT  of  Hamil- 

ton College.     70  cents. 

Schiller:    Der  Neffe  als  Onkel.     Edited  by  F.  B.  STURM  of  the 
University  of  Iowa.      Vocabulary.     35  cents. 

Die  Braut  von  Messina.      Edited  by  ARTHUR  H.  PALMER 

of  Yale  University  and  JAY  G.  ELDRIDGE  of  the  University 
of  Idaho.     70  cents. 

Die  Jungfrau  von  Orleans.      Edited  by  A.  B.  NICHOLS  of 

Simmons  College.     60  cents.     With  vocabulary,  75  cents. 

Geschichte  des  dreissigjahrigen  Kriegs.     Drittes  Buch. 

Edited  by  A.  H.  PALMER  of  Yale.     Vocabulary.     45  cents. 

—  History  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War.     Selections.     Edited  by 

A.  H.  PALMER  of  Yale.     80  cents. 

Maria  Stuart.      Edited  by  EDWARD   S.    JOYNES  of  South 

Carolina  College.     60  cents.     With  vocabulary,  75  cents. 

Minor  Poems.     Edited  by  JOHN  S.  NOLLEN.     80  cents. 

Wilhelm   Tell.       Edited  by  ARTHUR  H.  PALMER  of  Yale. 

60  cents.     With  vocabulary,  75  cents. 

HENRY  HOLT  AND  CO. 


ROSTAND-HA  UPTMANN-SUDERMANN 

( The  text  is  in  the  original.     The  editorial  matter  in  English.) 

Rostand:  Cyrano  de  Bergerac 

Come'die  heroique  en  5  actes.  Edited,  with  introduction  and 
notes,  by  Prof.  OSCAR  KUHNS,  of  Wesieyan  University, 
xiii  +  202  PP-  i2ino.  80  cents  net. 

The  editor  has  most  happily  explained  the  many  allusions  to 
persons,  places,  and  customs.  He  also  gives  numerous  illustra- 
tive quotations  from  the  works  of  the  author,  of  the  real  Cy- 
rano, etc. 

Prof.  H.  A.  Rennert,  of  the  University  of  Pa.:— "It  is  a  very 
careful  and  scholarly  piece  of  work." 

Hauptmann:     Die  versunkene  Glocke 

Ein  deutsches  Marchen-Drama.    Edited,  with  introduction 
and  notes,  by  Prof.  THOMAS  S.  BAKER,   of  Johns  Hopkins 
University.    xviii+aos  PP-    i6mo.    80  cents  net. 
The  introduction  contains  a  sketch  of  Hauptmann  and  his  re- 
lation to  the  contemporary  literary  movement  in  Germany,  and 
considerations  of  the  sources  of  the  play,  besides  a  brief  bibli- 
ography.   The  notes,  which  are  quite  full,  give  much  interesting 
mythological  and  historical  information. 

Prof.  H.  C.  G.  Brandt,  of  Hamilton  College  .•— "  It  is  probably 
the  most  remarkable  play  since  Goethe's  Faust,  and  to  edit  it 
was  no  small  task.  This  task  has  been  successfully  done  by  Dr. 
Baker.  The  dramaturgical  and  historical-mythological  notes 
are  particularly  good  and  helpful." 

Sudermann:  Frau  Sorge 

With  introduction  and  notes  by  Prof.  GUSTAV  GRUENER, 
of  Yale  University,    xvii  -f-  268  pp.    i2mo.    80  cents. 
Of  Frau  Sorge  a  recent  critic  has  said  that  in  this  novel  Suder- 
mann has  produced  his  best  and  most  personal  work.    This  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  it  is  to  some  extent  autobiographical,  a  poet- 
ical version  of  the  struggle  of  the  author's  younger  years.    The 
introduction  gives  a  full  account  of  Sudermann's  work  and  of 
his  relation  to  the  modern  realistic  school  of  fiction.    The  notes 
are  largely  literary. 

Henry    Holt    and    Company 

Publishers  (iv  '05)  New  York 


6493 


lirSlSr.^?*^  FACILITY 


A     000  675 


••  i  -  i 


i  m 


/••"• 


• 


